X^^L^ 


PAUL     OF     TARSUS. 


Paul  of  Tarsus 


AN^  INQUIRY   INTO     THE    TIMES    AND 

THE  GOSPEL    OF    THE  APOSTLE 

OF    THE    GENTILES, 


By  a  graduate. 


BOSTON: 

ROBERTS      BROTHERS. 

1872. 


Press  of 

JOHX  WILSON  AND   SON, 


PREFACE, 


'TpHE  author  of  the  followiug  pages  has  for  some 
time  past  attempted,  out  of  the  materials  which 
were  at  his  disposal,  to  construct  for  himself  a  sketch 
of  the  times  in  which  St.  Paul  lived,  of  the  religious 
systems  with  which  he  was  brought  in  contact,  of  the 
doctrine  which  he  taught,  and  of  the  work  which  he 
ultimately  achieved.  It  seemed  that  some  interest 
might  be  felt  by  others  in  these  researches,  and  they 
have  therefore  been  published. 

The  influence  which  St.  Paul  has  exercised  over  the 
Christianity  which  completely  leavens  modern  civiliza- 
tion is  wider  and  more  lasting  than  that  which  has 
been  wielded  by  any  other  man.  One  other  person, 
St.  Augustine  of  Hippo,  has  had  a  similar,  but  a  far 
less  energetic  authority.  If  the  contents  of  this  book 
enable  the  reader  to  realize  more  adequately  what  was 
the  social  and  religious  condition  of  the  world  in  which 
St.  Paul  lived,  and  what  it  was  that  he  sought  to  teach, 
the  immediate  purpose  of  the  publication  will  be  sat- 
isfied. 

The  writer  has  taken  for  granted  that  the  writings 


VI  PREFACE. 

ascribed  to  St.  Paul  are  genuine.  The  evidence  which 
has  been  alleged  against  the  authenticity  of  the  Pas- 
toral Epistles,  and  of  some  among  the  other  letters, 
does  not  seem  strong  enough  to  render  these  writings 
suspicious.  On  the  other  hand,  the  E|)istle  to  the 
Hebrews  could  not  have  come  from  St.  Paul.  These 
epistles  are  the  principal,  almost  indeed  the  only,  source 
from  which  to  construct  the  Pauline  theology. 

Among  the  Scriptures  of  the  New  Testament  is  a 
work  which  skives  an  account  of  the  doinsis  of  some 
among  the  Apostles,  and  particularly  of  Peter  and 
John,  Barnabas  and  Paul.  It  seems  that  this  book  is 
either  a  collection  of  extracts  from  some  very  copious 
archives,  or  that  it  contains  the  fragments  of  a  compre- 
hensive work.  Such  a  compilation  may  have  been 
made  because  only  portions  of  the  original  survived,  or 
the  book  may  be  an  ancient  Eirenicon,  intended  to 
prove  a  substantive  harmony  between  the  tenets  of  the 
Je^\^sh  Christians,  and  those  of  the  Gentiles  to  whom 
Paul  imparted  his  gospel.  The  latter  opinion  seems  to 
be  confirmed  by  the  manifest  parallelism  between  the 
recorded  doings  and  sayings  of  Peter  and  of  Paul.  It 
does  not  indeed  follow,  because  the  ficts  are  selected, 
that  the  narrative  is  not  to  be  depended  on.  But  if 
any  one  wishes  to  get  an  insight  into  the  causes  of  tliat 
strife  which  was  waged  between  the  Apostle  of  the 
Gentiles  and  the  heads  of  Jewish  Christianity,  he  will 
examine  the  Epistles  to  the  Galatians  and  to  the  Ro- 


PREFACE.  Vll 

mans,  rather  than  the  history  of  the  controversy  in  the 
Acts  of  the  Apostles. 

It  has  been  found  necessary,  in  giving  quotations 
from  the  Pauline  epistles,  to  deviate  from  the  words 
of  the  authorized  version.  It  is  well  known  that  the 
translation  of  this  part  of  the  New  Testament  is  fre- 
quently unsatisfoctory,  and  is  sometimes  unintelligible. 
It  is  hoped  that  these  deviations  from  the  words  of  a 
version  which  is  justly  regarded  as  one  of  the  noblest 
exemplars  of  the  English  language  will  be  justified  by 
the  assistance  which  they  give  the  reader  in  compre- 
hending the  scope  of  St.  Paul's  words. 

It  will  be  found  that  the  writings  of  St.  Paul  are 
treated  as  human  compositions  only.  It  may  be  the 
case,  as  popular  Christianity  avers,  that  the  religious 
sentiments  of  the  writers  whose  works  are  contained  in 
the  Scriptures  are  too  exalted  for  the  unassisted  powers 
of  man,  and  that  the  manifestation  of  this  peculiar 
genius  was  confined  to  a  few  favored  individuals.  Such 
an  opinion,  partly  dictated  by  the  reverence  which  is 
naturally  felt  towards  the  founders  of  a  religion,  partly 
due  to  the  energy  with  which  controversy  has  hallowed 
the  authorities  from  which  it  draws  its  arguments,  is 
not  countenanced  by  the  language  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment. However  transcendent  may  be  the  value  of 
these  writings,  it  must  at  least  be  admitted,  that  neither 
the  Jewish  nor  the  Christian  Scriptures  speak  with  the 
escotism  of  the  Koran. 


Vlll  PREFACE. 

Whatever  may  be  the  power  which  guided  the  writers 
of  the  New  Testament,  the  student  of  Primitive  Chris- 
tianity must  needs,  unless  he  merely  intends  to  declaim 
on  a  foregone  conclusion,  free  himself  from  preconceived 
opinions  and  traditions,  and  strive  to  look  on  the  teach- 
ing of  such  an  Apostle  as  Paul  from  the  stand-point  of 
a  listener  at  Thessalonica,  Athens,  or  Corinth,  and  to 
w^hom  the  message  of  the  new  religion  has  come  for 
the  first  time.  He  must  not  merely  take  a  layman's 
view  of  Christianity,  or,  in  other  words,  consider  his 
subject  as  one  does  who  has  no  professional  sympathies, 
and  no  professional  antipathies ;  but  he  must,  if  possi- 
ble, divest  himself  of  those  habits  and  associations 
which  pervert  a  critical  judgment.  It  is  not  too  much 
to  say,  that  the  defence  of  popular  Christianity  is  con- 
stantly irrational  and  inconsistent,  while  the  attack  on 
it  is  as  frequently  peevish  and  angry.  If  the  con- 
tents of  this  volume  are  written  in  a  different  spirit, 
the  author  hopes  to  have  given  some  assistance  towards 
the  solution  of  that  far  larger  question,  —  By  what 
means,  and  under  what  pressure,  have  the  dogmas  of 
later  Christianity  been  developed  from  the  Pauline 
original  ? 


PAUL   OF   TARSUS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

TUDAISM  was  the  cradle  of  Christianity,  and  Juda- 
^  ism  very  nearly  became  its  grave.  The  lii-st  teach- 
ers of  Christianity  were  all  Jews,  and  were  deeply 
imbued  by  the  traditions  and  observances  with  which 
the  restored  Israelites  had  overlaid  the  generous  teach- 
ing of  the  great  prophets.  These  refinements  were 
partly  glosses  on  the  Law,  partly  additions  to  those 
tenets  which  constituted  the  Judaism  of  the  monarchy. 
From  such  traditions  and  observances  many  of  the  Jew- 
ish converts  tore  themselves  with  infinite  difficulty  and 
pain,  while  not  a  few  of  them  were  willing  to  sacrifice 
the  last  command  of  Christ  to  the  urgent  claims  of  the 
Mosaic  ritual.  From  so  serious  a  peril  one  man  saved 
Christianity;  and  this  at  a  time  when  the  words  and 
acts  of  Christ  had  been  recorded  in  no  written  gospel. 
The  career  of  no  man  has  ever  produced  such  lasting 
effects  on  the  world's  history  as  that  of  St.  Paul.  But, 
in  attempting  to  estimate  the  work  which  he  did,  it  is 
essential  that  we  should  know  what  was  the  material 
with  which  he  had  to  deal,  and  what  were  the  agencies 
1* 


10  PAUL   OF  TARSUS. 

which  assisted  and  thwarted  him.  And,  first,  for  his 
countrymen. 

About  a  century  before  that  memorable  day  on 
which  Paul  of  Tarsus  was  making  a  journey  to 
Damascus,  and  was  just  in  sight  of  the  city  whose 
antiquity  was  such  that  even  the  great  ancestor  of  the 
Hebrews  had  visited  it,  a  trial  was  going  on  at  Rome. 
The  person  inculpated  was  a  member  of  that  distin- 
guished family  which  appears  in  the  earliest  recorded 
memories  of  the  Republic,  and  which  is  said  to  have 
been  continued  to  within  a  century  of  the  present  time. 
A  proconsul  of  the  Roman  province  of  Asia  had  been 
accused  of  extortion.  He  had  been  praetor  of  the 
city  during  Cicero's  consulship  and  the  maturity  of 
Catiline's  conspiracy,  and  had  given  great  assistance 
towards  detecting  and  frustrating  the  plot.  He  had 
obtained  his  province  in  order  to  recruit  his  fortunes, 
for  Rome  rewarded  her  ofticials  by  lucrative  provincial 
appointments.  The  power  of  these  governors  was 
almost  absolute.  In  order,  however,  to  provide  a  check 
against  the  wrongs  which  power  commits  when  a  ruler 
is  hard  and  greedy,  the  central  government  at  Rome 
made  these  ofiicials  liable  to  a  trial  for  extortion,  and, 
on  conviction,  inflicted  the  severest  penalties  which  the 
Roman  law  had  enacted  against  the  misdemeanors  of 
its  aristocracy. 

Lucius  Valerius  Flaccus  was  acquitted,  as  we  are  in- 
formed, through  the  eloquence  and  interest  of  Cicero. 
The  charge  of  extortion  was  seldom  brought  home  to 
the  accused,  even  when  the  guilt  of  the  governor  was 


THE   TRIAL    OF  A  ROMAN  PROCONSUL.        11 

notorious.  The  luxury  and  waste  of  the  Roman  nobles 
were  sustained  by  the  spoils  of  the  provinces.  In 
course  of  time  these  nobles  employed  their  ill-gotten 
gains  in  civil  war,  and  were  divided  into  hostile  camps. 
At  last,  and  of  necessity,  "  the  settled  world,"  as  men 
called  it,  came  under  the  despotism  of  a  single  ruler, 
who  was  garrisoned  by  an  imperial  guard.  The  settled 
world  found  that  its  material  interests  were  benefited 
by  the  change,  for  the  rule  of  a  single  despot  is  more 
tolerable  than  that  of  a  legion  of  despots.  But  the 
moral  interests  of  the  world  suffered  utter  havoc,  while 
the  two  remedies  of  moral  evil,  resistance  and  patience, 
were  seeking  for  their  opportunities.  Resistance  was 
hopeless,  and  patience  at  length  created  a  new  society 
on  the  ruins  of  the  old.  But  this  reconstruction  was 
effected  four  centuries  after  the  trial  of  Flaccus. 

Among  the  charges  brought  against  the  proconsul, 
was  that  of  his  having  forbidden  the  exportation  of 
certain  moneys  which  had  been  collected  by  the  Asiatic 
Jews  on  behalf  of  their  metropolis,  —  Jerusalem.  Those 
amons:  the  Jews  who  had  settled  outside  the  Land  of 
Promise,  held  themselves  bound  to  regularly  transmit 
their  first-fruits  to  the  Temple,  as  well  as  to  obey  the 
ceremonial  law  of  Moses.  This  voluntary  tribute,  paid 
by  many  votaries,  was  the  source  of  these  sacred 
treasures  which  Pompey  spared,  and  Crassus  pillaged. 
There  is  no  doubt  that  the  wealth  of  the  Jewish  hier- 
archy was  great.  It  is  probable  that  much  of  that  op- 
ulence for  which  Herod  the  Great  was  conspicuous,  and 
which   he   employed   in   conciliating  leading   men   at 


12  PAUL    OF  TARSUS. 

Rome,  and  in  constructing  fortifications  throughout 
Judea,  was  derived  from  the  spontaneous  revenue 
which  was  paid  by  the  expatriated  Jews. 

As  proconsul  of  Asia,  Flaccus  had  impounded  this 
gold  of  the  Jews,  had  probably  appropriated  it.  The 
act  had  given  great  offence  to  the  Jewish  race,  espe- 
cially to  those  at  Rome ;  for  Cicero  even  accuses  the 
prosecutor  of  having  designedly  selected  the  court  for 
holding  the  trial.  It  Avas  erected,  he  says,  in  a  quarter 
of  the  city  where  the  compatriots  of  these  Asiatic  Jews 
could  make  themselves  felt  by  their  clamor,  and  baffle 
the  defenders  of  the  inculpated  satrap.  This  region, 
we  are  told  by  Philo,  was  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Tiber, 
and  near  those  gardens  of  Caesar  which  were  bestowed 
by  the  great  dictator  on  the  Roman  people.  It  was 
reckoned  to  contain  a  colony  of  8,000  Jews  in  the  time 
of  Augustus.  But  Cicero  appeals  to  what  was  deemed 
policy  in  those  days,  and  for  many  a  century,  after. 
"  The  conduct  of  Flaccus,"  he  says,  "  in  prohibiting  the 
exportation  of  the  precious  metals  is  patriotic,  is  admira- 
ble. It  is  a  policy  which  I  have  often  recommended  to 
the  senate,  and  which  the  senate  has  adopted  at  my 
recommendation.  These  Jews  collect  treasure  from  all 
parts  of  the  empire,  from  Italy  itself,  and  pour  it  into 
Jerusalem."  The  notion  that  money  is  wealth  was  a 
maxim  with  Roman  statesmen. 

The  trivial  and  ordinary  parts  of  human  society,  at 
any  epoch  of  its  history,  attract  no  attention,  find  no 
record.  The  annaUst  merely  narrates  that  which  strikes 
his  imagination,  rouses  his  curiosity,  is  unhke  his  ordi- 


JEWS   OF   TEE  DISPERSION.  13 

nary  experience.  To  us,  however,  that  which  a  Roman 
of  Cicero's  day  found  commonplace  would  be,  if  we 
could  recall  it,  profoundly  interesting :  that  which  he 
thought  worthy  of  record  is  only  that  which  history  is 
eternally  repeating,  —  the  ambition  of  great  men,  and 
the  means  and  acts  by  which  that  ambition  is  satisfied 
or  disappointed.  What  if  we  could  reproduce  pre- 
cisely the  social  condition  of  that  Rome  in  which 
Cicero  was  speaking,  and  the  Asia  which  Flaccus  had 
pillaged  and  provoked !  The  fancy  of  Eastern  nations 
is  always  dreaming  of  some  city  which  has  been  sud- 
denly crystallized  into  a  perpetual  sleep,  and  in  which 
the  traveller,  if  he  could  only  reach  it,  would  see  what 
were  the  doings  of  those  primeval  races  whose  empire 
has  long  since  passed  away.  And  yet  the  East  changes 
slowly.  The  Damascus  of  to-day  does  not  perhaps  dif- 
fer much  from  the  Damascus  which  Abraham  visited, 
differs  hardly  at  all,  except  in  its  magnitude  and  pros- 
perity, from  the  city  where  Paul  lodged  in  the  street 
which  is  called  Straight,  which  was  in  the  principal 
boulevard  of  the  town.  We  in  the  Western  world, 
who  exult  in  change,  and  progress,  and  growth,  are 
very  far  removed  from  those  facts,  the  knowledge  of 
which  would  allow  us  to  reconstruct  the  social  state 
which  constituted  the  cradle  of  our  faith.  The  East  is 
the  best  school  in  which  to  study  the  outline  of  that 
civilization  which  is  still  an  antiquarian  puzzle,  but  the 
interest  in  which  is  perennial,  the  historical  reconstruc- 
tion of  which  is  a  necessary  condition  to  the  compre- 
hension of  the  Christian  Origines. 


14  PAUL   OF   TABS  US. 

The  Ghetto  of  Republican  Rome  helped  to  swell  the 
noisy  crowd  at  the  Aurelian  ascent,  where,  the  orator 
tells  us,  the  clamor  was  such  that  the  accused  person 
was  placed  at  a  great  disadvantage.  On  this  occasion 
the  Roman  Jews  collected  in  great  numbers,  in  order  to 
support  the  charge  against  the  rapacious  proconsul  who 
had  forbidden  them  to  send  their  pious  offerings  to  the 
temple  at  Jerusalem ;  and  they  exhibited  a  formidable 
organization. 

The  Roman  nobles  treated  native  religions  with  tol- 
eration,—  even  with  favor.  This  attitude  was  partly 
due  to  the  contempt  with  which  a  conquering  race 
viewed  the  faith  of  the  vanquished,  whose  superstition 
was  beneath  the  notice  of  an  irresistible  power,  whose 
gods  had  become  the  subjects  of  the  Caj^itoline  Jove, 
Avhen  the  nation  had  submitted  to  the  senate  and  peo- 
ple of  Rome.  It  was  partly  due  to  that  habit  which 
the  Romans  had  of  identifying  the  theocracy  of  foreign 
nations  with  their  own,  and  by  which,  for  example,  they 
acknowledged  Jehovah  Sabaoth,  under  the  name  of 
Jupiter  Sabazius.  But  it  was  still  more  due  to  policy. 
Rome  wished  to  make  subjects,  not  to  collect  converts. 
Occupied  with  the  business  of  constructing  an  empire, 
the  Roman  statesman  would  have  considered  it  a  mere 
waste  of  force  to  combat  the  religious  opinions  of  the 
dependencies,  Avhen  his  primary  business  was  to  ensure 
their  political  subjection.  If,  indeed,  religious  fanati- 
cism was  enlisted  on  the  side  of  the  combatant,  the 
Roman  showed  no  more  mercy  to  the  religious  than  he 
did  to  the  pohtical  sentiment.     But,  during  the  growth 


THEIR   HABITS.  15 

of  that  empire,  Rome  only  once  had  to  fight  with 
fanatics,  and  then  slie  found  the  struggle  fierce  enough 
to  task  her  greatest  energies.  It  was  only  a  fragment 
of  the  Jewish  race  which  fought  against  Vespasian  and 
Titus.  Even  this  portion  was  split  up  into  bitter  fic- 
tions, and  was  disorganized  by  furious  enmities.  The 
effect,  however,  of  the  last  Jewish  war  was  prodigious, 
and  the  conquerors  marked  their  sense  of  the  impulses 
which  gave  force  to  the  struggle,  by  razing  the  site  of 
the  Holy  City,  by  proscribing  the  sacred  Name,  and  by 
rigorously  banishing  the  Jews  from  Palestine. 

The  slight  sketch  of  Jewish  nationality  which  Cicero 
gives  us  is  reproduced  several  generations  later  by 
Tacitus,  and  hinted  at  by  Juvenal.  The  historian  ex- 
plains the  extraordinary  vitality  and  growth  of  the 
race  by  the  intense  home  sentiment  of  the  Jews.  To 
be  childless  was  a  reproach  in  Israel,  and  few  Jews 
were  unmarried.  As  is  the  manner  of  Roman  writ- 
ers, when  they  comment  on  races  whom  they  despise 
or  dislike,  Tacitus  speaks  coarsely  of  the  Jewish  tem- 
perament and  creed,  while  he  admits  the  loyalty  of 
the  race  to  the  metropolis  of  its  nation,  notes  its 
abhorrence  of  any  anthropomorphic  religion,  and  refers 
to  the  sedulous  care  with  which  the  Jew  fenced  off  his 
domestic  life  from  any  intercourse  with  the  people 
among  which  he  sojourned. 

The  Jews  of  antiquity,  like  their  modern  descend- 
ants, always  dwelt  in  cities,  forming  a  separate  com- 
munity in  some  well-defined  locality  or  ghetto.  This 
was  and  is  inevitable.     It  was  only  in  Palestine  that 


16  FAUL    OF   TAIISUS. 

they  were  agriculturists.  Their  law  forbade  the  use 
of  certain  kinds  of  animal  food.  Even  that  flesh  which 
was  permitted  them  had  to  be  carefully  prepared,  and 
had  to  be  legally  healthy.  Under  certain  restrictions 
and  limitations,  their  great  Lawgiver  permitted  mixed 
marriages,  and  the  practice  of  the  ancient  Jews  was 
even  less  rigid  than  the  rule  of  the  Mosaic  code.  The 
tenderest  narrative  in  the  Old  Testament,  after  the 
story  of  Joseph  and  his  brethren,  is  the  Eastern  idyl  of 
Ruth.  This  pastoral  tells  us  how  a  daughter  of  the  ac- 
cursed Moab  —  of  a  race  which  was  to  be  perpetually 
excluded  from  the  congregation  —  married  into  the  first 
family  of  the  tribe  of  Judah,  after  having  claimed  the 
•right  of  a  widow  against  her  husband's  next  of  kin. 
The  great  King  of  Israel  married  the  daughters  of 
Canaanite  chieftains.  '  The  harem  of  his  magnificent 
son  was  filled  with  women  who  worshipped  strange 
gods.  The  Song  of  Songs  is  reputed  to  be,  in  its  pri- 
mary meaning,  an  epithalamium  on  the  marriage  of 
Solomon  with  an  Egyptian  princess.  In  the  story  of 
Esther,  a  Jewish  maiden  is  taken  into  the  seraglio  of 
the  Persian  monarch,  and  advanced  to  the  post  of  prin- 
cipal Avife,  without  any  demur  on  the  part  of  her  near- 
est male  relative  and  guardian.  But  after  the  captivity 
a  more  rigorous  rule  prevailed.  In  the  days  of  Ezra 
and  Nehemiah  —  the  Puritans  of  Jewish  history  —  we 
read  that  all  mixed  marriages  were  proscribed,  that 
those  who  contracted  them  were  excommunicated,  and 
that  the  offspring  of  these  marriages  were  deprived  of 
civil   rights.     At    the   beginning   of  our   era,  the  Jew 


THE  JEWS   OF  ALEXANDRIA.  17 

would  marry  no  woman  who  w^as  not  of  his  own  race. 
It  seems  that  Jewish  women  did  occasionally  contract 
marriage  with  Gentiles.  Paul  vouches  for  the  piety  of 
Eunice  and  Lois,  —  the  mother  and  grandmother  of 
Timothy ;  but  the  fither  of  this  disciple  w\as  a  Greek ; 
and  it  is  plain  that  these  pious  women  did  not  think 
the  ceremonial  law,  represented  by  its  most  obligatory 
and  universal  rite,  binding  on  the  child  whom  they  so 
carefully  instructed  in  the  Jewish  scriptures. 

The  most  important  colony  of  Jews  was  that  of 
Alexandria.  It  dates  from  the  commencement  of  the 
voluntary  dispersion,  and  is  coeval  with  the  foundation 
of  the  city.  Wq  are  told  that,  after  the  destruction  of 
Tyre,  the  Macedonian  conqueror  marched  on  Jerusa- 
lem, that  he  was  welcomed  by  the  high  priest,  and  in- 
formed of  the  success  which  the  prophet  Daniel  had 
predicted  for  Greek  valor  and  discipline.  It  is  added 
that  Alexander  treated  high  priest  and  temple  with 
scrupulous  respect.  There  were  Jews  who  accom- 
panied his  army,  who  refused  to  pollute  their  hands 
with  the  work  of  rebuilding  the  temple  of  Belus,  who 
were  instruments  in  the  vengeance  which  the  captive 
Psalmist  imprecated  on  the  daughters  of  Babylon.  So 
Jew^s  w^ere  enrolled  among  the  colonists  of  Alexandria. 

The  successors  of  Alexander  continued  the  favor 
wdiich  he  showed  to  the  Jews.  Seleucus  gave  them  the 
freedom  of  citizens  in  Antioch  and  Seleucia,  and 
favored  those  banking  establishments  which  they  set  up 
in  the  principal  towns  of  Asia  Minor.  But  the  Lagid 
dynasty  established  in  Egypt  treated  them  with  the 


18  PAUL   OF  TARSUS. 

greatest  confidence.  The  corn  trade  of  Alexandria 
fell  almost  entirely  into  their  hands  at  a  very  early 
period.  Two  Jews  were  the  captains  of  the  household 
troops  under  Philadelphus,  and  another  Jew  farmed  its 
revenues  under  Evergetes.  The  armies  of  Philometor 
were  led  by  Jewish  generals.  The  settlers  were 
wealthy,  and,  as  was  to  be  expected  from  the  callings 
which  they  followed,  unpopular.  Hence  the  later 
monarchs  of  the  dynasty  occasionally  sacrificed  them 
to  the  anger  or  alarm  of  the  Alexandrian  mob. 

These  Jews  followed  and  were  faithful  to  the  fortunes 
of  Caesar,  who  rewarded  them  by  confirming  them  in 
all  their  rights  and  privileges,  and  by  allowing  them  to 
elect  a  ruler  or  chief  magistrate  over  themselves,  under 
the  title  of  Alabarch.  In  the  same  way,  according  to 
Benjamin  of  Tudela,  the  Abassid  Caliphs  of  Bagdad 
permitted  the  Jews  of  Central  Asia,  in  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury, to  elect  a  chief  of  their  own  race,  under  the  title 
of  the  Prince  of  the  Captivity.  The  nation  throve, 
and  in  the  days  of  Tiberius  it  was  reckoned,  according 
to  Philo,  that  Alexandria  contained  200,000  out  of  the 
million  Jewish  settlers  in  Egypt.  The  same  authority 
informs  us  that  two  out  of  the  five  wards  into  which 
the  city  was  divided  were  entirely  occuj^ied  by  Jews. 

Many  troubles  fell  on  the  Alexandrian  .Jewry  during 
the  reign  of  Tiberius,  and  under  the  administration  of 
Sejanus,  the  father  of  the  notorious  minister  whom 
Tiberius  trusted,  detected  and  destroyed.  This  Sejanus 
was  succeeded  by  Flaccus  Avillius,  who  followed  the 
policy  of  his  predecessor,  and  encouraged  the  Alexan- 


CALIGULA  AND   THE  JEWS.  19 

drian  mob  in  acts  of  violence  on  the  Jewish  quarters. 
For  a  time,  the  seclusion,  the  sufferance,  the  patience, 
the  profound  humility  of  this  people,  enabled  them  to 
avoid  the  liostility  which  they  could  not  disarm.  "  The 
race,"  says  Cicero,  "  is  slavish  to  the  core."  There  was, 
however,  a  limit  to  this  submission — there  was  an  act 
of  tyranny  which  could  rouse  this  people  to  enthusiastic 
resistance.  They  might  be  insulted,  plundered,  tor- 
tured, and  they  would  fiwn  on  the  wrong-doer.  But 
they  were  stung  to  frenzy  if  any  insult  was  offered  to 
their  God,  and  to  His  temple. 

Caligula  resolved  to  be  worshipped  as  a  god.  The 
empire  was  prostrate  before  the  majesty  of  the  Caesar. 
It  began  by  worshipping  his  fortunes,  and  it  at  last 
reached  the  inconceivable  meanness  of  adoring  the  man. 
This  baseness  was  not  unknown  in  the  days  of  Augus- 
tus ;  it  grew  during  the  reign  of  Tiberius.  But  the 
degradation  was  A^oluntary,  was  confined  to  places  and 
individuals.  Caligula  strove  to  make  it  compulsory, 
and  to  extend  it  over  the  whole  empire. 
.  The  promulgation  of  this  new  religion  gave  an  op- 
portnnity  of  which  the  enemies  of  the  Alexandrian 
Jews  availed  themselves,  in  order  to  satisfy  the  malig- 
nity of  their  perpetual  feud.  Flaccus  secretly  encour- 
aged every  excess  against  Israelites,  every  outrage 
which  could  be  committed.  The  Jewish  quarters  suf- 
fered all  the  horrors  of  a  sacked  city.  At  last  Flaccus 
was  recalled,  —  it  was  a  satisf iction  to  the  pious  Jew  to 
know  that  the  enemy  of  his  nation  was  ruined,  dis- 
graced, and  finally  banished  to  an  island  in  the  Egean. 


20  PAUL   OF  TABS  US. 

Here,  as  he  bemoaned  his  fate,  Caligula  remembered 
him.  This  emjDeror  suffered  from  one  of  the  common 
symptoms  of  madness,  continual  want  of  sleep.  In  an 
hour  of  this  watchfulness,  he  bethought  himself  of  the 
numerous  exiles  who  were  confined  in  their  insular 
prisons,  and  among  them  of  Flaccus,  and  despatched 
his  executioners  after  him.  Philo  again  exults  over  the 
horrible  circumstances  which  attended  the  legate's 
slaughter. 

Still  the  troubles  of  the  Jews  were  not  ended.  Pe- 
tronius  was  charged  in  Judea  with  the  duty  of  setting 
up  the  statue  of  the  emperor  in  the  temple,  and  the  Al- 
exandrian Jews  were  harassed  because  they  did  not 
worship  Caesar.  So  they  resolved  to  send  an  embassy 
to  Caligula,  with  the  view  of  deprecating  his  wrath, 
and  of  pleading  their  inability  to  fulfil  his  command. 
The  leader  of  this  forlorn  hope  was  Philo.  This  em- 
inent person  has  given  an  account  of  his  interview  with 
the  madman  who  was  ruling  the  world,  and  of  the 
danger  which  the  deputation  ran  in  the  attempt  to  con- 
ciliate him.  Fortunately  for  the  embassy,  Caligula  was- 
not  in  one  of  his  savage  moods,  and  merely  amused 
himself  with  his  trembling  petitioners.  He  was  occu- 
pied in  decorating  a  palace,  and  had  no  present  a}>petite 
for  blood.  So  he  dismissed  Philo  and  his  companions 
for  a  time,  observing  that  they  Avere  rather  to  be  pitied 
than  blamed  for  their  unwillingness  to  worship  him. 

The  Jews  of  Alexandria  were  distinguished  for  their 
culture  as  well  as  for  their  wealth.  The}  founded  a 
school  of  philosophy,  or  at  least  amalgamated  the  spec- 


THE   THEOSOPHY  OF  PIIILO.  21 

ulations  of  the  great  Greek  thinkers  with  their  own 
theosophy.  Many  of  them  were  thoroughly  versed  in 
the  literature  of  Greece,  and  Philo  in  particular  quotes 
largely  from  the  most  famous  poets.  The  system 
which  they  constructed  was  eclectic.  They  adopted 
the  mystic  theory  of  numbers  which  cliaracterized  the 
tenets  of  the  Pythagoreans,  incorporated  the  Pla- 
tonic ideas,  and  accepted  the  Aristotelian  logic,  as  the 
vehicle  of  their  formularies,  and  as  a  support  to  their 
allegories. 

The  doctors  of  the  Jews  recognized  under  the  name 
of  Memra,  a  Word  or  Reason  of  God,  whom  they  called 
the  son  of  God,  the  mediator  between  God  and  man. 
The  same  conception  is  traceable  in  the  Apocryphal 
book  of  wisdom,  which  is  supposed  to  have  been  the 
work  of  an  Alexandrian  Jew.  But  in  Philo,  the  Word 
is  the  true  High  Priest,  the  legate  of  the  Most  High, 
the  archetypal  exemplar,  the  creative  power,  the  per- 
petual Mediator.  This  conception,  enlarged,  exalted, 
and  identified  with  Christ,  is  the  central  figure  in  the 
fourth  gospel,  the  form  under  which  Jesus  the  Prophet, 
the  Teacher,  the  Redeemer,  the  King,  the  Mediator,  the 
Judge  of  humanity,  is  exhibited  as  the  eternal  Son,  the 
Sharer  in  the  creative  power  of  the  Almighty. 

To  our  modern  habit  of  thought,  the  allegories  of 
Philo  would  seem  childisli  and  forced.  With  this  au- 
thor, for  example,  the  story  of  the  Patriarchs  was  not 
only  a  narrative  of  Israel's  childhood,  but  a  mine  from 
which  the  treasures  of  Divine  truth  might  be  extracted, 
the  profound  verities  of  religion  might  be  illustrated  or 


22  PAUL    OF   TARSUS. 

demonstrated.  St.  Paul  himself  has  not  disdained  to 
use  this  method  of  exposition  in  his  parallel  between 
the  Law  and  the  Gospel,  the  son  of  Hagar  and  the  son 
of  Sarah ;  and  again  in  his  contrast  between  the  heav- 
enly bread  and  miraculous  water  which  followed  the 
wandering  Israelites,  and  the  spiritual  sustenance  which 
Christ  affords  those  who  are  w^ithin  His  covenant  of 
grace. 

But  though  sometimes  the  Alexandrian  theologian  of 
^the  Jewish  school  was  apt  to  make  the  Almighty  rather 
a  Power  than  a  Person,  to  represent  Him  as  Universal 
as  well  as  One,  and  so  to  almost  adopt  a  Pantheistic 
conception  of  the  Divine  nature,  —  the  idea  which  he 
entertained  as  to  the  action  of  God  is  lofty,  just  and 
consolatory.  His  most  marked  attribute  is  that  of  a 
protector  to  suffering  humanity,  an  avenger  of  high- 
handed insolence,  of  mercilessness,  of  wickedness,  and  of 
-wrong-doing.  As  a  servant  of  such  a  God,  the  Jew  of 
Alexandria  could  hold  no  man  in  slavery.  The  essence 
of  the  Divine  nature  is  His  Providence,  His  univei-sal, 
unsleepmg  sight,  His  absolute  knowledge  of  each  man, 
in  act,  in  word,  in  thought,  in  heart.  And  if  sometimes 
His  hand  is  slow  to  strike  the  wrong-doer,  and  His  ear 
seems  closed  to  the  wail  of  misery,  —  the  prayer  of  the 
poor  destitute,  —  He  is  sure  to  perform  at  last  what  His 
long-suffering  tenderness  delays.  It  was  this  firm  con- 
fidence which  made  the  Jew  patient  in  adversity, 
trustful  in  the  direst  need.  It  is  this  trust  which  has 
given  unity  and  unchangeableness  to  a  race  now"  exiled 
for  eighteen  centuries  from  its   fatherland.      He    could 


JEWISH  TEACHINGS  OF  PROVIDENCE.         23 

endure  all  things,  if  he  held  fast  to  the  cardinal  tenet 
of  God's  eternal  being,  if  he  was  jealous  of  God's  hon- 
or, if  he  clung  to  the  crowning  consolation  of  an  ulti- 
mate deliverance,  to  be  worked  by  the  power  of  Him 
who  is  mighty  to  save.  It  need  hardly  be  said  that  this 
calm,  confident  hope  is  the  thought  which  penetrates 
the  devotional  books  of  the  Old  Testament,  which  has 
made  the  Psalter  a  perpetual  solace  to  Jew  and  Chris- 
tian, which  gave  the  great  prophets  of  old  so  mighty  a 
power  of  interpreting  the  letter  by  the  spirit,  as  to 
make  them,  instead  of  being  the  Ulemas  of  a  scanty 
Syrian  tribe,  the  teachers  of  the  whole  human  race. 
Even  now  the  revelation  which  these  fathers  make  of 
the  Divine  nature  is  inferior  to  the  luminous  exposition 
which  the  Gospel  gives  of  the  Almighty  counsels,  in 
degree  only,  not  in  kind,  as  the  dawn  of  a  summer's 
day  differs  in  brilliancy  only  from  the  sun-Hght  in  its 
strength. 

Among  the  practical  rules  of  Judaism,  none  was 
insisted  on  with  greater  emphasis  than  the  duty  of 
succoring  the  poor,  the  fatherless,  the  widow.  The 
reaping  of  the  harvest,  the  gathering  of  the  vintage, 
the  shaking  of  the  olive-trees,  must  not  be  too  com- 
plete, that  this  rule  of  kindly  care  for  the  helpless  may 
not.be  lost  sight  of,  even  in  the  urgent  business  of  life. 
The  servitude  of  Jew  to  Jew  was  permitted,  but  only 
for  a  brief  space,  since  the  Sabbath-year  must  see  the 
Hebrew  bondman  free.  The  pledge  must  not  be  mer- 
cilessly enacted,  in  some  cases  must  be  restored.  Kor 
could  a  Jew  perpetually  alienate  the  inheritance  of  his 


24  PAUL    OF  TARSUS. 

fathers.  Between  Jew  and  Jew  those  money-dealings 
which,  more  than  aught  else,  make  men  harsh  and  un- 
feeling, must  not  be  stimulated  by  the  condition  of 
usury  or  increase.  Nay,  similar  rules  attend  the  usage 
of  the  brute  creation.  The  laboring  ox  must  be  un- 
muzzled when  he  treads  out  the  corn,  in  order  that  he, 
too,  may  share  in  the  bounty  of  Him  who  gives  both 
seed-time  and  harvest.  It  is  a  cruelty  which  the  Law 
forbids,  to  take  the  mother  bird  and  her  young ;  it  is 
unnaturally  harsh  even  to  seethe  the  kid  in  his  mother's 
milk.  Is  it  not  also  likely  that  the  hoiTor  of  eating 
blood  —  the  life  of  living  beings  —  which  is  treated  as 
the  oldest  command  of  the  Law,  may  not  have  had  the 
same  humanizing  object  of  inculcating  gentleness  and 
tenderness,  and  the  avoidance  of  that  familiarity  with 
violence  and  slaughter  which  always  brutalizes  man  ? 
Commands  like  these,  energetically  interpreted,  —  ex- 
tended so  as  to  include  the  spirit  of  the  Law,  as  well  as 
its  letter,  —  educated  the  Jew  in  the  habit  of  generous 
dealing  towards  those  of  his  own  nation  who  needed 
the  aid  which  he  could  give.  Until  he  was  maddened 
beyond  endurance  by  the  insults  which  despotism 
heaped  on  his  faith,  and  the  dishonor  which  was  done 
his  God,  the  patiiotism  of  the  Jew  did  not  consist  so 
much  in  the  glorious  memories  which  belonged  to  his 
race,  as  in  the  active  exercise  of  benevolence  towards 
his  fellow-countrymen,  —  in  the  readiness  with  which  he 
listened  to  the  cry  of  distress.  It  is  by  this,  as  well  as 
by  his  pure  monotheism,  that  the  Jew  stands  out  so 
markedly  in  the  civilization  of  the  ancient  world.     And 


ALEXANDRIAN  PHILOSOPHY.  25 

it  was  this  spirit  which  Christianity  incorporated  into 
its  ethical  code,  the  best  inheritance  which  it  gained 
fi'om  the  older  creed.  Judaism,  it  is  true,  confined,  in 
theory  at  least,  its  kindliness  to  the  race  of  Abraham, 
though  it  is  impossible  that  a  carefully  trained  gentle- 
ness of  nature  should  be  wholly  bounded  by  the  ties  of 
blood  —  should  be  deaf  to  any  cry  for  pity  which  may 
rise  from  those  of  an  alien  race.  But  Christianity,  in 
the  hands  of  its  great  missionary,  accepted  as  its  car- 
dinal truth,  that  all  the  generations  of  mankind  should 
be  blessed  by  the  great  Son  of  Abraham  and  David, 
and  so  enforced  the  beneficent  maxims  of  the  Jewish 
code  on  behalf  of  all  those  who  are  gathered  within 
the  church  of  Christ.  Here  was  the  contrast  between 
the  hard,  selfish,  haughty  pride  of  the  Roman,  and  the 
boundless  charity  of  the  Christian  convert.  Here  was 
the  origin  of  that  marvellous  conversion,  which,  leaving 
St.  Paul  in  possession  of  his  ancient  courage  and  in- 
domitable will,  made  him  able  to  endure  all  things,  and 
yet  acknowledge  the  duty  of  universal  charity. 

As  God  was  the  Maker  of  all,  the  Judge  of  all,  the 
Saviour  of  all,  so  He  is  in  this  Alexandiian  Judaism 
the  Author  of  all  grace.  St.  Paul  himself  did  not 
plead  more  vehemently  against  self-righteousness  and 
self-sufficiency  than  Philo  does  when  he  says,  that  the 
man  who  recognizes  the  work  of  his  own  mind  only, 
and  does  not  see  God  in  what  he  can  do,  is  a  brigand 
who  robs  another  of  his  due. 

That  the  philosophy  of  Alexandria  had  a  wide  in- 
fluence is  known.     It  is  clearly  traceable  in  the  writ- 


26  PAUL  OF  TARSUS. 

ings  of  Seneca,  who  was  the  pupil  of  a  Jewish  doctor. 
But  its  influences  on  Christianity  were  abiding.  It 
contributed  largely  to  that  speculative  spirit  which 
early  busied  itself  with  abstract  dogma,  from  the  days 
of  Origen  to  those  of  Athanasius  and  Cyril.  The 
chief  city  of  Egypt  was  the  cradle  of  dogmatic  theol- 
ogy, the  workshop  from  which  issued  these  definitions 
and  distinctions  which  tore  Christianity  into  sectarian- 
ism. And,  unhappily,  it  was  also  the  earliest  home  of 
bitter  intolerance.  The  birthplace  of  turbulent  theo- 
logical factions,  of  persecuting  ferocity,  of  insane  ascet- 
icism, of  frivolous  ceremony,  of  arrogant  sacerdotalism, 
it  canonized  these  passions  in  the  person  of  Cyril,  who, 
Christian  bishop  as  he  was,  rivalled  Flaccus  in  his  out- 
rages on  the  Jews,  and  gloried  in  being  the  murderer  of 
Hypatia. 

It  was  inevitable  that  the  Greek  conquest  of  Asia 
should  have  powerfully  affected  Semitic  habits  of 
thought.  Alexander  and  his  successors  gave  their  sub- 
jects an  army  and  a  discipline.  Army  and  discipline, 
it  is  true,  rapidly  deteriorated.  He  gave  them  also  an 
administration,  which  must  have  remained  Greek  to  a 
large  extent,  though  it  was  accommodated  to  Eastern 
habits.  Those  Greek  customs,  also,  the  gymnasium  and 
the  sophist's  lecture,  took  root  in  the  Asiatic  and  Egyp- 
tian cities.  Schools  of  philosophy,  the  basis  of  whose 
training  was  laid  in  the  formularies  of  the  great  Athen- 
ian thinkers,  flourished  among  these  outlandish  towns 
which  the  Greeks  generalized  as  barbarian.  The  most 
famous  Jewish  doctors  accepted  and  employed  some  of 


ROMAN  TOLERATION  OF  JUDAISM.  27 

these  j^hilosopliic  forms.  The  Pauline  epistles  contain 
many  illustrations  of  the  exactitude  with  which  the 
nomenclature  of  the  Peripatetic  system  was  known  to 
the  Apostle,  however  little  the  Aristotelian  syllogism 
may  appear  in  his  writings.  The  young  Pharisee  who 
sat  at  the  foot  of  Gamaliel  learned  from  him  technical 
terms  which  were  much  more  nearly  like  the  method  of 
the  Academy  and  the  Porch,  than  akin  to  the  discipline 
of  these  schools  of  the  prophets  which  Samuel  seems  to 
have  founded,  and  whose  influence,  moral  and  political, 
was  so  great  during  the  epoch  of  the  kings.  Some  of 
the  dispersed  Jews,  whose  allegiance  to  the  Mosaic  code 
was  loose,  even  fi-equented  the  gymnasium,  and  took 
part  in  the  games.  It  is  not  at  all  inconsistent  with 
human  nature  that  this  laxity  of  conduct  and  discipline 
coexisted  with  a  ferocious  patriotism  and  a  fanatical 
spirit  towards  those  who  appeared  to  secede  from  Jew- 
ish unity.  The  dispersed  Jews  were  always  the  bitter- 
est enemies  of  the  Apostle,  both  in  Jerusalem  and 
elsewhere. 

It  seems,  moreover,  that  the  chief  civil  and  eccle- 
siastical magistrates  of  Judea  exercised  a  precarious 
criminal  jurisdiction  over  their  dispersed  compatriots. 
They  may  have  obtained  this  authority  by  the  consent 
of  the  Roman  senators,  who  were  always  well  disposed 
towards  an  established  religion,  the  dignitaries  of  which 
might  be  useful  instruments  for  the  maintenance  of 
order.  The  controversial  essay  of  Hippolytus,  bishop 
of  Ostia,  in  which  the  tenets  of  the  more  prominent 
heretics  in  the  early  part  of  the  third  century   are  ex- 


28  PAUL   OF  TABSUS. 

pounded,  shows  that  the  exercise  of  the  Jewish  religion 
was  protected  in  Rome  at  this  eiyoch.  The  empire  may 
have  connived  at  this  imperium  in  imperio,  feeling  ^\dth 
Gallio,  that  it  was  not  the  part  of  a  dignified  Roman  to 
adjudicate  on  the  squabbles  which  broke  out  among  the 
devotees  of  a  despicable  superstition,  and  that  it  was 
quite  out  of  the  question  to  expect  that  a  Roman  judge 
should  attempt  to  understand  the  by-laws  of  a  ghetto. 
This  contemptuous  toleration  was  of  infinite  value  to 
the  infant  churches.  It  was  only  when  the  political  and 
social  system  of  the  Roman  empire  seemed  to  be  im- 
perilled by  the  growth  of  Christianity,  that  systematic 
persecution  began. 

The  Roman  law  favored  all  voluntary  associations. 
It  conferred  a  legal  status  on  such  parties  as  united 
themselves  into  a  corporation,  and  enacted  by-laws  for 
their  own  order  and  guidance.  Perhaps  the  most  val- 
uable inheritance  of  Roman  civilization  is  the  spon- 
taneous municipality,  the  collegium  of  the  jurists,  the 
voluntary  corporation,  on  which  law  bestowed  some  of 
the  personality  of  the  social  unit.  The  peculiarities 
of  the  Jewish  creed,  the  marked  servility,  and  the 
equally  marked  pride  of  its  devotees,  —  qualities  which 
have  made  them  at  once  the  most  pliant  and  the  most 
conservative  of  races,  —  led  them  to  eagerly  adopt 
those  provisions  of  the  law  which  gave  their  associa- 
tions a  legal  color  and  standing. 

The  rigid  monotheism  of  the  restored  Jew,  and  his 
hatred  to  all  anthropomorphic  conceptions  of  God, 
markedly  distinguish  the  Israelite  whom  Ezra  led  back 


ASSOCIATION  AMONG  THE  JEWS.  29 

from  Persia,  and  the  Maccliabees  marshalled  against 
the  gross  nature-worship  of  Syria,  from  the  Israelite  of 
the  Davidic  kingdom,  who  perpetually  fell  into  Cana- 
anite  idolatry.  The  Scriptures  of  the  Old  Testament 
prove  how  easily  the  ancestors  of  the  later  Jews  were 
seduced  into  adopting  the  gods  of  the  heathen,  Baal 
and  Ashtaroth,  Moloch  and  Chemosh.  It  is  not  un- 
likely that  intercourse  with  their  Persian  conquerors 
may  have  aided  the  children  of  the  captivity  in  form- 
ing those  strict  conceptions  of  monotheism,  which 
insulated  the  Jew  of  the  Roman  Empire.  It  assuredly 
developed  that  dualism,  the  perpetual  conflict  between 
a  good  and  an  evil  power,  which  constituted  the  basis 
of  Aryan  theology,  which,  almost  absent  from  the  sys- 
tem of  the  Old  Testament,  is  allowed  in  the  New,  which 
has  at  length  been  taken  by  many  sects  to  constitute  the 
essence  of  the  Christian  creed,  and  which  is  the  most 
poetical  as  well  as  the  most  stirring  form  in  which  men 
can  put  before  themselves  the  ends  and  the  means  ol 
the  religious  life,  though  it  is  far  from  being  the  noblest 
conception  of  divine  love  and  gentleness. 

It  is  easy  to  see,  then,  how  this  Jew,  forced  or  in- 
duced to  quit  his  native  land,  secluded  from  the  society 
in  which  he  lived  by  ceremonial  obligations,  by  an  in- 
effaceable rite,  by  a  persistent  patriotism,  whose  nation- 
ality was  fed  by  a  host  of  magnificent  memories,  and 
sustained  by  an  energetic  organization,  should  have 
eagerly  adopted  those  means  of  association  which  the 
Roman  law  permitted.  The  dispersed  Jews  levied  a 
voluntary  tax  on  themselves,  and  transmitted  the  pro- 


30  PAUL    OF  TARSUS. 

ceeds  to  the  hierarchy  at  Jerusalem.  The  economy  of 
ancient  society  supplied  a  ready  means  for  this  trans- 
mission, for  the  mechanism  by  which  foreign  exchanges 
were  effected  was  well  known  to  the  old  world.  The 
Parable  of  the  Talents  is  proof  that  so  much  of  the 
system  of  banking,  as  is  contained  in  the  practice  of 
giving  interest  on  deposit  accounts,  was  so  familiarly 
used  in  Palestine  as  to  become  an  obvious  and  popular 
illustration  in  a  religious  apologue.  It  is  plain  that 
if  a  Syiian  banker  was  ready  to  encourage  depositors 
with  an  offer  of  interest,  he  must  have  used  these  de- 
posits either  as  advances  on  loan,  or  as  the  means  for 
effecting  exchanges  with  distant  countries,  and  that  the 
latter  object  is  much  more  likely  than  the  former.  The 
Jew  has  traded  in  money  from  the  days  of  the  Mac- 
chabees. 

Sometimes  these  collegia,  as  the  Roman  law  called 
them,  were  declared  unlawful.  Occasions  fi^equently 
arose,  on  which  the  haughty  conservatism  of  the  Ro- 
man noble  was  led  to  proscribe  that  which  it  always 
despised,  on  the  plea  uttered  at  Philippi,  —  that  the 
practice  was  not  lawful  to  a  Roman,  that  the  public 
morality  was  debased  by  the  presence  of  foreign  super- 
stition, or  that  the  gods  of  the  Republic  were  insulted 
by  rivals.  The  religion  of  Rome  was  essentially  do- 
mestic. The  great  gods  of  the  city  were  to  the  state 
what  the  Penates  were  to  the  household.  Generally  it 
was  thought  politic  to  conciliate  a  foreign  deity.  But 
it  was  another  thing  to  introduce  his  unlicensed  culte 
into  Rome,  or  into  a  colony  which  was  constitutionally 


OLD   TESTAMENT  POLITY  INDEFINITE.        31 

a  part  of  Rome.  And  much  more  frequently,  as  it  is 
conceived,  the  wealth  of  these  Jewish  collegia  roused 
the  avarice  of  those  Roman  nobles,  whose  rapacity 
was  even  more  devouring  than  their  pride.  Verres 
and  Flaccus  were  the  types  of  a  class. 

The  Old  Testament  sanctions  no  particular  forai  of 
government,  prescribes  no  single  system  of  secular  au- 
thority, enforces  no  uniform  organization  of  society 
or  administration.  The  eternal  purpose  of  tlie  Al- 
mighty does  not  condescend  to  define  a  form  of  polity 
for  man.  The  house  of  Aaron  is  gifted  with  the  priest- 
hood, the  fierce  tribe  of  Levi  is  dedicated  to  Jehovah. 
But  neither  priest  nor  Levite  is  invested  with  magis- 
terial functions.  The  only  ofiice  which  the  priest  of 
the  old  covenant  exercised  was  that  of  a  judicial 
decision  on  the  condition  of  a  person  suspected  of 
leprosy,  with  the  duty  of  pronouncing  the  social 
excommunication  of  one  convicted  of  this  disease. 
The  taint  of  leprosy,  incurable  by  any  remedy  which 
lay  in  the  power  of  man,  became,  by  an  obvious  met- 
aphor, the  representative  of  the  rnoral  taint  of  sin,  of 
which  man  cannot  rid  his  fellow-man,  which  must  be 
cleared  away  by  some  act  of  divine  beneficence,  and 
which,  being  inheritable,  designates  the  inherent  de- 
pravity of  the  human  race,  a  moral  as  consequent  upon 
a  physical  death.  But  the  priest  of  the  Pentateuch 
and  the  early  historical  books  of  the  Old  Testament 
is  not  a  ruler,  not  even  a  magistrate.  Before  the  mon- 
archy, there  was  no  central  government  in  Israel,  ex- 
cept during  the  occasional  supremacy  of  some  eminent 
judge. 


32  PAUL    OF   TARSUS. 

In  Palestine  itself,  after  the  rise  of  the  Asmonean 
dynasty,  the  offices  of  high  priest  and  monarch  were 
for  a  time  united.  Later  on,  they  were  divided,  the 
high  priest  becoming  the  centre  of  that  ecclesiastical 
system  to  which  the  scattered  Jewish  communities 
owed  allegiance  and  tribute.  This  Israelite  pope  was 
assisted  by  a  council,  or  conclave,  or  sanhedrim,  or 
presbytery,  as  St.  Paul  himself  calls  it.  It  was  before 
this  assembly  that  Stephen,  the  first  martyr,  was 
brought,  and  by  it  that  he  was  condemned.  It  was  in 
imitation  of  this  central  organization  that  the  Chris- 
tian Church  of  Jerusalem  established  the  sacred  College 
over  whom  James  was  set,  and  by  whose  authority  it 
was  intended  that  all  the  converts  of  the  gospel  should 
be  governed.  It  was  this  assumption  which  St.  Paul 
resisted  with  so  much  energy  and  with  such  success  at 
Antioch.  It  is  doubtful,  however,  whether  the  College 
at  Jerusalem  would  not  have  ultimately  succeeded  in 
establishing  its  pretensions,  had  not  the  capture  and 
total  destruction  of  the  city  dispersed  the  organization 
of  the  Christian  Jews  in  Palestine. 

It  is  possible  that  the  form  which  the  permanent 
council  of  the  high  priest  assumed  was  borrowed  from 
the  usage  of  Greek  and  Roman  politics.  In  the  view 
of  Aristotle,  the  senate  was  essentially  a  popular  institu- 
tion, and  was  characteristic  of  that  political  civilization 
which  the  Greeks  achieved.  The  Roman  municipality 
had  officers  and  senate,  as  in  Rome,  —  duumviri,  who 
represented  the  consuls ;  curiales,  who  were  the  coun- 
cillors of  the  provincial  towns.      So,  where  the  dis- 


TEE   SCRIPTURES   OF  THE  JEWS.  33 

persecl  Jews  were  in  numbers  sufficient  for  a  synagogue, 
they  had  a  chief  of  their  community,  and  a  council  of 
advice.  Such  synagogues,  for  example,  existed  at 
Thessalonica,  Athens,  Corinth,  and  Ephesus,  and  were, 
naturally,  the  first  theatre  for  the  Apostle's  preaching, 
as  they  were  constantly  the  source  from  which  mischief 
threatened  him.  The  captivity  of  St.  Paul,  with  which 
the  direct  narrative  of  the  Apostle's  life  ceases,  was 
primarily  the  work  of  those  Asiatic  Jews  whom  he  had 
often  confronted  in  their  synagogues,  and  from  whom 
he  had  finally  separated  his  converts  during  the  time 
of  his  last  visit  to  Ephesus.  In  its  beginnings,  Chris- 
tianity, like  the  Judaism  of  the  Christian  era,  was  the 
religion  of  towns-folk.  The  heathenism  of  the  villages 
w^as  not  assailed  till  long  after  the  apostolic  nge.  But 
we  shall  see  the  effects  of  this  hereafter,  in  considering 
what  was  the  organization  of  the  Church  in  its  early 
stages  of  existence. 

It  does  not  appear  that  the  Jews  of  the  apostolic  age 
were  profoundly  conversant  with  all  the  books  of  the 
Old  Testament.  A  general  acquaintance  with  the 
Pentateuch,  a  more  thorough  knowledge  of  the  Psalms, 
and  with  some  of  the  leading  Messianic  prophecies, 
seem  to  constitute  the  Biblical  learning  possessed  by  a 
carefully  taught  Jew.  The  N"ew  Testament  contains 
few  allusions  to  the  history  of  the  chosen  people  during 
the  years  which  intervened  between  the  settleuient  of 
Canaan  and  the  reign  of  David,  or  during  the  rival 
monarchies.  And  yet  it  would  have  been  expected  — 
had  the  writers  of  the  New  Testament  been  well  ac- 

2*  B 


34  PAUL   OF  TABS  US. 

quaintecl  with  the  historical  books  of  the  Old  —  that 
allusions  would  have  been  frequent,  that  types  and 
allegories  would  have  been  discovered  abundantly,  and 
that  the  spirit  of  the  prophetic  books  would  have  been 
invoked  constantly  and  successfully  against  a  blind 
obedience  to  much  of  the  ceremonial  law  which  the 
Israelite  followed.  The  story  of  the  chosen  people  is 
full  of  passages  which  might  have  been  used  fi-eely  for 
the  purpose  of  spiritual  analogy.  What,  for  example, 
is  more  obvious  than  the  long  doom  of  that  kingdom 
whose  rulers  persistently  made  Israel  to  sin;  and  the 
religious  significance  of  the  lesson?  What  story  is 
more  fitted  for  typical  illustration  than  the  exquisite 
narrative  of  Joseph?  What  indicates  more  forcibly 
the  single-heartedness  of  the  Christian  than  the  career 
of  Joshua,  his  zeal  than  that  of  Elijah?  One  would 
like  to  know  what  scriptures  those  were  in  which 
Apollos  was  mighty.  Moses,  we  know,  was  read  on 
the  Sabbath.  Christ  commented  on  the  prophecy  of 
Isaiah  in  the  synagogue  of  Nazareth.  St.  Paul,  how- 
ever, quotes  the  Old  Testament  scriptures  frequently, 
especially  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans. 

Some  even  of  these  scanty  quotations  are  inaccurate. 
Jeremiah  is  credited  with  a  passage  from  Zechariah. 
The  author  of  the  Epistle  of  St.  James  ascribes  the 
drought  in  the  days  of  Ahab  to  the  efficacy  of  Elijah's 
prayers,  but  the  narrative  in  the  Book  of  Kings  desig- 
nates the  prediction  of  this  visitation  as  a  revelation 
from  Jehovah,  and  the  return  of  the  customary  showers 
as  a  similar  announcement,  the  prophet  being  a  per- 


THE   CRITICAL   FACULTY  MODERN.  35 

fectly  pcassive  instrument.  Again,  the  Epistle  of  Jucle 
quotes  as  genuine,  and  without  the  slightest  suspicion, 
the  Book  of  Enoch,  and  refers  to  the  legend  of  a  dis- 
pute between  Michael  and  the  Devil  over  the  body  of 
Moses,  as  though  it  were  part  of  the  sacred  history. 

It  is  almost  superfluous  to  say  that  the  critical  faculty 
which  investigates  facts  judicially,  and  which  considers 
their  reality  as  relative  to  their  probability,  is  of  recent 
growth.  Nothing,  indeed,  is  or  can  be  told  with  per- 
fect accuracy,  —  no  description,  for  example,  gives  all 
the  circumstances  which  have  come  before  the  sight. 
Still  less  is  it  j^ossible  to  assign  all  the  causes  and 
motives  of  an  action.  The  utmost  that  can  be  done  is 
to  narrate  as  much  of  the  event  as  is  needed  to  give  a 
clear  and  distinct  impression  of  its  leading  features,  to 
tell  the  story  as  it  invited  the  attention  or  affected  the 
imagination  of  the  narrator.  Even  under  these  circum- 
stances, two  independent  witnesses,  both  of  whom  en- 
deavor to  give  a  genuine  account  of  their  impressions, 
may  traverse,  or  even  contradict  each  other  in  particu- 
lars, as  one  sees  every  day  in  judicial  proceedings. 
The  habit  of  criticising  events,  as  though  they  were 
marshalled  before  a  court  of  law  and  in  view  of  the 
verdict  of  a  jury  or  the  sentence  of  a  judge,  and  with 
such  strictness  as  to  make  it  requisite  that  dates,  places, 
and  persons  should  be  precisely  identified,  is  modern. 
And  it  may  very  possibly  happen  that  what  is  gained 
in  precision  by  such  an  analytical  process,  is  more  than 
lost  in  the  weakened  vivacity  of  the  tale  and  even  in  its 
substantive   veracity.      To  treat  that  only  as   a  fact 


36  PAUL   OF  TARSUS. 

which  is  fi  likelihood,  reduces  history  to  a  dull  drama 
of  mechanical  puppets,  which  has  far  less  reality  than  a 
confessedly  poetical  narrativ^e. 

The  authors  of  those  books  which  have  come  down 
to  us  under  the  collective  name  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, lived  in  a  thoroughly  matter-of-fact  world,  ^vith 
which  their  affections  and  their  hopes  were  very  little 
in  harmony.  They  were  the  helpless  subjects  of  a  de- 
vouring and  remorseless  despotism.  Before  the  empire 
was  inaugurated,  these  subjects  fi-om  time  to  time 
strove  to  free  themselves  from  the  yoke.  After  this 
epoch,  the  Jewish  struggle  in  the  later  days  of  Nero 
was  the  last  effort  which  a  nationality  made  to  vindi- 
cate its  autonomy.  It  is  impossible  for  us  to  realize 
the  deadening  effects  of  such  a  despotism.  From  it 
there  was  no  escape,  even  no  exile.  Outside  its  bar- 
riers were  surging  up  those  hordes,  which  in  the  end 
poured  over  it  like  a  flood.  But  in  the  early  days  of 
the  Roman  empire  these  marauders  were  kept  effect- 
ually at  bay,  along  a  vast  range  of  frontier,  flight  over 
which  was  rarely  open  to  the  discontented.  The  civil- 
ized world  was  literally  bound  in  fetters.  Ca3sar  and 
his  legions  were  everywhere,  crushing  down  every 
thing  with  the  iron  heel  of  power,  enslaving  every  one. 
Speech  was  watched,  for  the  empire  swarmed  with 
spies  and  informers.  Thought  was  hardly  free,  for  the 
tremendous  interpretations  given  to  the  law  of  treason, 
made  every  man  suspicious  and  suspected.  The  repu- 
tation of  eminent  virtue  and  of  daring  vice  was  equally 
dangerous.     The   best  hope  of  safety  lay  in  insignifi- 


ROMAN  DESPOTISM.  37 

cance  and  obscurity.  The  saddest  lot  was  to  be  of 
Caesar's  kinsfolk,  the  luckiest  was  to  be  his  favorite 
slave.  "  It  is  a  rare  happiness,"  says  Tacitus,  writing  in 
the  better  days  of  Trajan,  "  to  think  as  you  will,  and  to 
speak  as  you  think."  It  is  amazing  that  in  such  an 
age,  Christianity  laid  its  foundations  so  deeply  and  so 
broadly. 

The  long  indulgence  of  every  sensual  passion  makes 
Eastern  sovereigns,  we  are  told,  feel  a  languid  pleasure 
in  cruelty  for  its  own  sake.  It  becomes  an  excitement 
to  inflict  pain.  But  these  Eastern  despots  must  be 
roused  from  a  more  delicious  apathy  in  order  to  enter- 
tain this  pleasure.  The  worst  of  the  Roman  emperors 
had  a  horrible  activity  in  the  pursuit  of  this  gratifica- 
tion. Caligula  and  Nero,  the  former  from  a  ferocious 
insanity,  the  latter  from  very  wantonness,  were  pre-em- 
inently cruel.  The  former  demanded  divine  honors  to 
be  paid  him ;  the  latter,  beyond  his  unnumbered  out- 
rages upon  the  people  whom  he  ruled,  worked  special 
havoc  on  the  imperial  house.  Mother,  wife,  cousin, 
were  his  victims.  And  these  monsters  of  despotism  — 
so  totally  crushed  was  the  people  —  fell  by  their  af- 
fronted soldiers,  not  by  the  daggers  of  those  whom 
they  had  outraged  or  wronged.  The  Roman  emperor 
had  no  one  to  fear  but  his  praetorians,  and  the  body- 
guard of  the  emperor  was  generally  faithful  to  its  pay- 
master. The  mission  of  St.  Paul  was  cast  in  the 
darkest  era  of  the  world's  history.  It  was  a  long  day 
of  despair. 

From  such  overwhelming  misery  there  are  two  kinds 


38  PAUL   OF   TARSUS. 

of  refuge.  Men  may  forget  their  degradation  in  prof- 
ligacy, or  escaj^e  into  the  haven  of  rehgion.  Caesar 
may  claim  their  life,  their  goods,  their  corporeal  liberty, 
but  he  cannot  quench  their  passions,  or  he  cannot  co- 
erce their  souls.  They  may  drown  their  moral  con- 
Bciousness  in  debauchery,  or  they  may  take  the  wings 
of  a  dove,  and  fly  to  the  rest  of  the  people  of  God, — 
may  possess  their  souls  in  patience. 

The  fragments  of  a  romance,  professedly  written  in 
the  days  of  Nero  —  and  which  may  well  have  been 
composed  at  that  time  —  still  exist  under  the  title  of 
the  Satyricon  of  Petronius  Arbiter.  The  name  of  the 
book  means  no  more  than  that  the  composition  is  partly 
prose,  j^artly  verse.  It  contains  a  few  passages  of  great 
beauty,  and  one  of  genuine  humor,  the  tale  of  the 
Ephesian  matron.  But  the  greater  part  of  the  frag- 
ments is  the  narrative  of  a  hcentious  revel.  It  is  the 
mere  delirium  of  debauchery.  And  yet  it  is  j^robably 
a  picture  of  the  expedients  by  which  a  Roman  noble 
strove  to  forget  the  despotism  under  which  he  lived. 
Much  which  the  CaBsarism  of  that  age  could  not  crush, 
it  utterly  debased.  Aristophanes,  Lucian,  Rabelais  are 
coarse  and  licentious  enough,  but  Petronius  is  tran- 
scendently  impure. 

Another  novel  has  come  down  to  us  entire.  It  is  of 
a  later  date  than  the  fragments  of  Petronius,  but  it  is 
tainted  in  the  same  way,  though  in  an  inferior  degree. 
The  Golden  Ass  of  Apuleius  has  been  said  to  be  a  ro- 
mance inculcating  the  worship  of  the  good  goddess  — 
the  deified  power  of  nature.     As  a   j^icture   of  social 


THE  REFUGE  FROM  C^SARISM.  39 

life,  it  justifies  the  indignant  condemnation  of  the 
Apostle,  when  he  reckons  up,  with  characteristic  ve- 
hemence, the  accumulated  misdeeds  of  those  who  are 
given  up  by  their  own  vices  to  a  reprobate  mind,  who 
know  how  great  is  their  own  depravity,  but  indulge  it, 
and  encourage  others  to  the  like. 

The  other  refuge  from  the  slavery  of  Csesarism,  from 
the  subjection  of  the  physical  man  and  his  material 
possessions  to  despotism,  was  religion.  And  this  re- 
ligion was  of  two  kinds.  One  had  been  long  in  exist- 
ence, partly  as  a  protest  against  the  gross  superstition? 
of  the  popular  theology,  partly  as  an  inquiry  into  the 
conditions  of  mind  and  being.  It  had  now  become  the 
defiant  avowal  of  the  su23eriority  of  moral  right  ovei 
brute  force,  even  though  it  was  constrained  to  occupy 
the  attitude  of  passive  resistance.  This  was  philoso- 
phy, especially  that  of  the  later  Stoics.  The  other 
alternative  was  new,  obscure,  despised,  —  a  foolish  re- 
finement, as  was  thought,  upon  a  Syrian  superstition 
This  was  Christianity,  as  taught  by  Paul  and  his  asso- 
ciates. The  last  struggle  between  the  ancient  religion 
of  the  heathen  world,  and  the  new  force  which  was  to 
leaven  civilization,  came  in  the  form  of  a  controversy 
between  philosophy  and  Christianity,  —  a  struggle 
which  continued  vigorously  in  Athens  and  Alexandria 
long  after  the  Empire  professed  the  Faith,  and  which 
was  at  last  concluded  by  the  compulsory  silence  of  the 
philosophers.  And  if  Christianity  converted  the  Con- 
stantines,  philosophy  numbered  the  Antonines  among 
its  disciples  and  devotees. 


40  PAUL  OF  TARSUS. 

The  philosophers  of  the  Empire  did  not  aim  at  pro- 
viding a  system  which  should  leaven  society  at  large. 
They  merely  pm'posed  to  instruct  those  who  had  ca- 
pacity and  leisure.  They  did  not  demand  that  their 
disciples  should  be  rich,  well-born,  influential.  It  was 
the  pride  of  philosophy  that  it  totally  ignored  rank  and 
wealth,  or  treated  them  as  superficial  and  unimportant 
circumstances.  The  fact  that  the  satirist  sometimes 
depicts  the  j^hilosopher  as  hanging  on  to  the  skirts  of 
the  rich,  of  being  a  parasite,  is  negative  testimony  that 
such  practices  were  a  dishonor  to  the  profession  which 
the  philosopher  made,  and  that  the  majority  of  these 
savants  were  free  from  the  imputation  of  such  aims. 
When  a  churchman  is  described  as  rapacious,  lux- 
urious, or  licentious,  and  emphasis  is  laid  on  character- 
istics of  this  kind,  the  satirist  of  the  individual  intends 
to  imply  that  such  a  person  is  an  exception  and  a  scan- 
dal. When  Boccaccio  depicts  the  clergy  of  his  day, 
he  expresses  no  indignation  against  their  profligacy, 
gluttony,  and  mendacity.  These  were,  at  that  epoch, 
the  general  vices  of  the  order. 

The  philosophies  of  antiquity  could  not  address 
themselves  to  the  general  mass  of  the  community. 
They  did  not  appeal  to  sympathy,  which  is  a  universal 
bond,  but  to  intelligence  or  reason,  which  is  a  limited 
faculty,  an  exceptional  endowment.  Still,  the  philos- 
opher intended  to  influence  society  at  large.  But  this 
was  to  be  effected  by  attracting  and  instructing  such 
minds  as  could  rule  or  guide  mankind.  The  greatest 
victory  of  this  discipline  was  to  be  achieved  when  the 


PHILOSOPHY  AND  CHRISTIANITY.  41 

philosopher  should  rule,  or  the  ruler  become  a  true  and 
competent  philosopher.  "  Under  existing  habits  of 
thought,"  says  Plato,  "  this  is  a  tremendous  paradox, 
the  advocates  of  which  will  be  saved  from  active  hos- 
tility only  by  a  torrent  of  ridicule.  But,"  the  speaker 
continues,  "  it  is  only  in  this  way  that  society  can  be 
saved."  Nor  can  it  be  doubted  that  the  object  which 
the  Stoic  and  Platonist  of  the  empire  had  before  him, 
was  an  attempt  to  supplant,  by  his  better  way,  a  brutal 
military  system,  and  that  any  success  in  this  direction 
was  a  prodigious  gain  to  mankind.  Few  monarchs 
have  reached  the  simplicity,  piety,  truthfulness,  and 
zeal  for  the  public  good,  which  characterized  Anto- 
ninus and  Aurelius.  The  age  of  these  great  princes  is 
the  one  oasis  in  the  desert  of  the  Roman  Empire. 
They  were  the  ripest  and  the  best  examples  of  what 
philosophy  could  do  for  man.  But  theirs  was  not  a 
lasting  example.  The  general  vices  of  despotism  ruin 
society,  and  its  occasional  virtues  are  incompetent  to 
restore  it. 

That  Christianity  has  affected  the  mass  of  mankind 
is  j^rimarily  due  to  the  fundamental  propositions  which 
it  affirms.  It  says,  that  mankind  has  been  saved  or 
restored  by  the  life  and  death  of  Christ,  however  dif- 
ferently the  profession  of  Christianity  has  understood 
both  life  and  death,  however  limited  or  however  wide 
may  be  its  interpretation  of  the  benefit  which  man- 
kind has  gained  by  that  Great  Fact  in  the  history  of 
the  world.  The  more  wretched,  forlorn,  depraved,  has 
been  the  condition  of  those  who  have  been  introduced 


42  PAUL   OF  TARSUS. 

to  this  gospel  and  who  liave  received  it,  the  clearer  has 
the  benefit  been.  Hence,  however  much  the  teaching: 
of  Christianity  may  appeal  to  the  reason,  it  appeals 
still  more  urgently  to  the  feelings,  reaching  to  their 
lowest  depths,  and  stirring  them  j^i'ofoundly  and  com- 
pletely. It  demands  faith,  but  it  demands  action  as  a 
proof  of  faith.  It  addresses  the  individual,  and,  there- 
fore, fi'om  its  very  beginnings  it  markedly  repudiated 
that  most  preposterous  outcome  of  Nihilism,  under 
which  the  Buddhist  longs  for  annihilation  and  absorp- 
tion. It  is  true,  that  after  a  time  this  gross  supersti- 
tion attacked  the  Eastern  Church,  and  produced  those 
swarms  of  hermits  and  monks  who  travestied  Chris- 
tianity m  the  third  century.  Even  now,  the  descend- 
ants of  these  Buddhist  devotees,  the  Lamas  of 
Central  Asia,  closely  resemble,  as  JMJVI.  Hue  and  Gar- 
bet  affirm,  the  monkish  orders  of  the  Greek  and 
Koman  churches.  Had  such  an  absurdity  been  de- 
veloped during  the  Ufe  of  Paul,  and  in  the  churches 
which  he  founded,  his  indignation  would  have  vented 
itself  in  language  like  that  in  which  he  denounces  the 
Judaizing  bigots  of  Jerusalem,  when  he  writes  to 
the  Galatians. 

But  though  the  Christianity  of  the  apostolic  age  ad- 
dresses the  individual,  it  supposes  him  to  be  at  one  with 
other  believers  in  Christ.  Man  is  not  saved  for  himself 
only,  any  more  than  he  is  saved  by  his  own  efforts. 
He  is  not,  and  cannot  be,  the  isolated  object  of  the 
Divine  mercy  and  grace.  Christ  came  to  save  the 
world.      The   arrogance   and   self-complacency  which 


THE  APOSTLES    PREACHED  IN  CITIES.        43 

induce  men  to  think  themselves  the  particular  object 
of  God's  favor,  that  affected  thankfulness  which  is  real 
contempt  for  others,  is  the  temper  of  the  Pharisee,  not 
of  the  Christian.  The  Christian  must  teach  his  fellow- 
man,  by  word  it  may  be,  by  deeds  of  necessity.  The 
individual  is  converted,  to  be  enrolled  into  a  church, 
with  an  organization,  a  government,  a  corporate  power, 
a  corporate  grace. 

The  apostles  preached  in  towns.  The  intinerary 
of  St.  Paul  is  fi'om  Philippi  to  Thessalonica,  Beroea, 
Athens,  Corinth.  Nothing  is  said  about  halting  at 
intermediate  places,  and  preaching  the  gospel  in  the 
villages  or  small  towns  which  were  intersjDcrsed 
throughout  this  route.  The  social  arrangements  of 
cities  were  more  available  for  the  message  of  the 
gospel  than  the  population  of  the  pagi  and  demes  was. 
It  is  not,  indeed,  to  be  supposed  that  the  country  folk 
of  Greece  and  Italy,  of  Asia  Minor  or  Palestine,  were 
planted  in  scattered  households.  They  dwelt  together 
for  purposes  of  mutual  defence,  and  generally  had 
their  stronghold  to  which  they  might  convey  their 
130ssessions  when  marauders  were  about.  So,  in  all 
probability,  the  form  of  the  English  village,  where  the 
houses  aj-e  clustered  together  near  the  churcli,  is 
derived  from  the  time  in  which  the  country  was  liable 
to  the  incursions  of  Danes  and  other  Norsemen,  and 
when  the  church  was  a  common  hall  in  times  of  quiet, 
a  storehouse,  an  arsenal,  and  a  castle  in  times  of 
danger. 

It  was  easier  to  gather  a  church  together  in  these 


44  PAUL    OF   TARSUS. 

cities.  There  was  the  synagogue,  or  the  j^lace  of 
prayer;  there  were  the  dispersed  Jews,  sometimes 
friendly,  often  hostile ;  there  were  the  devout  Greeks, 
who  had  been  attracted  from  nature  worship  and  its 
coarse  superstitions  to  the  pure  monotheism  of  the 
Jews,  though  they  did  not  accept  its  ceremonial  obli- 
gations. Sometimes  they  had  even  learned  so  much 
as  to  comprehend  that  interpretation  of  the  letter  by 
the  spirit,  which  was  known  as  John's  baptism,  and 
which  was  the  restoration  of  that  generous  and  living 
zeal  which  characterized  the  Hebrew  j^rophet  of  the 
kingdom.  This  was  ground  prepared  for  the  seed. 
But  once  within  the  believing  church,  the  Apostle 
taught  that  there  was  an  absolute  oneness  and  equality 
in  Christ.  The  distinction  between  Jew  and  Greek 
was  to  disappear;  the  ancient  rite  which  sealed  the 
covenant  of  Abraham,  and  was  renewed  under  the 
captaincy  of  Joshua,  was  now  obsolete ;  the  foreigner 
was  a  citizen  of  the  new  Church,  the  Jerusalem  which 
was  from  above.  The  Scythian  savage  might  become 
the  docile  discij^le,  or  the  active  preacher ;  the  slave 
was  the  Lord's  freeman,  the  freeman  Avas  bought  with 
the  price  of  Christ's  death.  The  nature  of  the  convert 
was  changed,  the  old  man  was  put  off —  there  was  no 
further  fellowshij^  with  bygone  habits,  practices,  and 
beliefs,  which  were  now  for  ever  abandoned ;  for  in 
their  place  was  a  new  being,  ever  growing,  ever  devel- 
oping, ever  renewing  itself,  and  gradually  by  its  spir- 
itual introspect,  as  it  knows  more  and  more,  reaching 
that  likeness  of  the  Creator,  for  which  it  once  igno- 


INTENSE  EARLY  CHRISTIAN  FEELING.        45 

rantl}^  yearned,  into  which  it  is  now  being  trans- 
formed. 

To  those  who  lived  within  this  mystic  union,  the 
outer  world  seemed  lifeless  or  corrupt,  —  an  unreal 
thing,  which  was  passing  away.  The  religion  of  the 
heathen  was  a  sacrifice  to  devils,  its  political  system  a 
mystery  of  iniquity,  —  a  revelation  of  Antichrist,  —  of 
the  Man  of  Sin.  For  a  time,  many  of  the  converts 
had  lived  in  and  for  this  system,  —  had  been  enslaved 
to  its  grossness,  or  overpowered  by  its  prestige.  They 
had  now  been  enlightened ;  and  to  go  back,  even  in 
thought,  to  that  from  which  they  had  escaped,  was  as 
impossible  as  it  would  be  for  a  child  to  again  accept 
the  errors  which  have  been  utterly  dispelled  by  a  sud- 
den and  large  experience.  They  enjoyed  the  full  light 
of  a  clear  and  perfect  faith,  the  intensity  of  which  cor- 
responded to  the  freshness  of  its  growth,  and  contrasted 
with  the  black  debasement  from  which  the  man  had 
efifected  his  escape.  With  men  in  this  state  of  happy, 
joyous  trust,  who  lived  in  an  age  when  charity  had 
not  been  throttled  by  dogmas  and  definitions,  there 
was  no  doubt  to  torment  the  mind,  no  gloss  on  the 
law  of  liberty,  which  should  seek  to  make  it  an  in- 
tolerable bondage. 

It  is  in  this  absolute  seclusion  from  past  interests 
that  we  must  account  for  the  indifference  to  public 
questions  which  formed  an  early  reproach  on  the  Cliris- 
tian  community,  and  that  timidity,  or,  at  least,  acqui- 
escence in  the  established  order  of  things,  which 
characterized  the  Apostolic   age.     The  casuistry  of  a 


46  PAUL  OF   TARSUS. 

later  age  perverted  the  tenets  which  justified  this 
policy  into  a  permanent  political  creed,  and  attempted 
to  make  that  a  rule  for  the  conduct  of  a  Christian 
community  which  was  intended  to  secure  to  these 
new  converts  complete  isolation  from  a  social  system 
which  could  not  be  touched  without  impurity.  The 
early  Christians  dared  not  exercise  the  rights  of  citizens 
without  forfeiting  or  imperilling  the  most  precious 
privileges  of  their  faith.  It  was  even  doubtM  whether 
they  might  hold  social  intercourse  with  unbelievers. 
Life  was  short,  and  immortaUty  lay  beyond  it. 

Besides,  it  is  manifest  that  all  —  apostles  and  people 
—  looked  forward  to  the  immediate  consummation  of 
the  world.  St.  Paul  was  possessed  by  this  impression. 
The  times  were  in  God's  own  power —  the  day  and  the 
hour  were  not  revealed  to  the  Christ  in  the  days  of 
His  flesh,  but  hid  in  the  counsels  of  the  Father.  But 
the  time  was  assuredly  short  —  there  were  those  living 
who  w^ould  be  caught  up  in  the  air,  to  be  for  ever  with 
Him.  They  were  near  Him  now  in  spirit,  they  would 
be  speedily  near  Him  in  the  body.  In  the  view  of 
that  faith  which  bridged  over  the  interval  of  the 
Divine  counsels,  and  already  gave  the  assurance  of  the 
immediate  presence  of  God,  the  world,  its  cares,  its 
purposes,  its  pomp,  its  power,  its  threatenings,  became 
most  remote,  most  insignificant,  a  mere  speck  in  the 
dawning  Infinity. 


CHAPTER  11. 

'THHE  principles  of  morality  are  not  peculiar  to  one 
-*-  epoch  of  civilization  nor  to  one  religion.  They 
are  as  permanent  and  as  universal  as  other  laws  of 
nature  are.  It  is  true,  that  like  all  those  general  posi- 
tions which  are  relative  to  the  social  condition  of  man, 
they  are  often  imperfectly  understood,  often  ignored, 
often  violated  to  the  detriment  of  society,  to  the  injury 
of  those  who  do  not  know  them,  or  knowing  break 
them.  In  just  the  same  way,  communities  and  indi- 
viduals understand  the  laws  of  health  or  of  political 
economy  imperfectly,  defy  them  or  break  them.  The 
perfection  of  moral  science  consists  in  the  accurate 
knowledge  of  all  moral  obligations;  the  theory  of 
civilization  j^resumes  a  general  acquiescence  in  these 
moral  obligations,  while  its  completeness  is  effected  by 
prompt  and  general  obedience  to  the  precise  rules  of 
conduct  and  duty. 

It  would  not  be  difficult  to  construct  several  systems 
of  pure  morality  which  should  be  almost  perfect,  and 
therefore  alike,  from  a  host  of  independent  sources. 
The  duties  of  individuals  to  society  at  large,  and  to  the 
forces  which  compose  society,  are  to  be  found  in  the 
Vedas,  in  the  Zendavesta,  in  the  works  of  the  Athenian 


48  PAUL   OF   TARSUS. 

philosophers,  in  the  KabbaLi  and  Talmud,  in  the 
Koran,  as  well  as  in  the  Xew  Testament.  The  author 
of  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans  bears  witness  to  the  uni- 
versality of  the  moral  law,  and  to  its  sufficiency  as  an 
exposition  of  moral  duty.  It  is  an  error  to  arrogate  the 
affirmation  of  this  moral  law  to  one  system  of  religion, 
and  no  less  an  error  to  argue  that  such  parts  of  differ- 
ent systems  as  coincide  must  have  been  derived  from 
some  common  source,  or  to  see  in  some  agreement  that 
the  one  is  a  plagiary  of  the  other. 

It  is  easy  to  discover  a  close  resemblance  between  the 
morality  of  the  Talmud  and  that  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, easy  for  a  j^artisan  to  exalt  the  gloss  of  the  Jew- 
ish doctors  over  the  rules  of  the  Christian  life  as 
promulgated  by  the  Evangelists  and  Apostles,  or  to 
ignore  the  teaching  of  the  Rabbis  in  estimating  the  ser- 
vice which  Christianity  has  done  to  the  moral  purifica- 
tion of  the  world.  It  is  not  inconsistent  with  what  we 
read  of  Christ  in  the  gospels  that  He  should  have  been, 
as  Jewish  writers  have  alleged,  the  pupil  of  that  Rabbi 
Simeon  who  was  noted  as  the  chief  of  the  Ascetics,  the 
great  teacher  of  the  Essenes.  It  may  be  true  that  a 
close  resemblance  may  be  found  between  the  com- 
parison of  the  lily  of  the  field  with  the  glory  of  Solo- 
mon, and  a  recorded  saying  of  this  famous  doctor; 
that  the  eagerness  with  which  a  lost  sheep  is  sought, 
and  the  tenderness  with  which  it  is  welcomed  back  — 
one  of  the  most  touching  of  Christ's  parables  —  may 
have  its  counterpart  in  a  parable  of  the  same  sage.  He 
is  reported  to  have  said  that  a  certain  man  had  a  flock 


TEACHING  OF  THE  JEWISH  DOCTORS,  49 

of  sheep  which  were  daily  led  to  pasture.  Here  they 
were  joined  by  a  gazelle,  who  regularly  fed  with  them, 
and  returned  with  them  to  the  fold.  The  owner  of  the 
flock  bade  his  shepherds  take  the  greatest  care  of  this 
stranger ;  and  when  he  was  asked  why  he  showed  it 
such  favor,  answered,  This  creature  has  left  the  wilder- 
ness, and,  in  spite  of  its  own  untamed  and  timid  nature, 
has  joined  the  flock.  It  is  well  that  I  should  welcome 
it  more  aflectionately  than  I  do  those  who  have  been 
fed  by  me,  and  tended  by  my  care.  For  that  which  is 
customary  with  them,  is  strange  to  the  gazelle.  And 
thus,  continues  the  Rabbi,  God  will  welcome  the 
stranger  who  joins  himself  to  the  chosen  people,  more 
than  He  will  those  who  have  always  had  the  blessing 
of  His  covenant,  because  they  are  born  to  Israel. 

Does  the  Christian  law  bid  man  love  his  neighbor, 
and  assert  that  they  who,  serving  God,  do  this,  are 
near  to  the  kingdom  of  God  ?  The  great  Doctor  Hillel 
says,  that  not  to  do  to  your  neighbor  that  which  is  dis- 
tasteful to  yourself  is  the  whole  law;  while  another 
teacher  infers  the  universal  obligation  of  charity  and 
beneficence  fi*om  the  fact  that  man  is  created  in  the 
image  of  the  Almighty. 

Again,  the  grace  which  is  given  to  the  humble,  when 
expressed  by  the  Jewish  doctors,  is  stated  under  the 
form  that  in  the  humble  dAvells  permanently  the 
Shekinah  of  the  Almighty.  The  Divine  Master  bids 
those  who  would  be  first  among  men  to  be  their  ser- 
vants; the  Rabbi  gives  a  conversation  between  the 
chief  among  the  Jews  and   Alexander  the  Great,  — 

3  D 


50  PAUL   OF  TARSUS. 

"What  should  a  man  do  who  wishes  to  gain  the  love 
of  his  fellow-men  ?  Avoid  all  rule  and  authority  over 
them."  Are  the  disciples  informed  that  he  who  exalt- 
eth  himself  shall  be  abased,  and  he  that  humbleth  him- 
self shall  be  exalted  ?  —  we  are  reminded  of  the  maxim 
of  Hillel,  "  My  humiliation  will  be  my  exaltation,  my 
exaltation  my  humiliation."  "  The  knowledge  of  God  is 
not  in  heaven,"  says  Moses;  and  the  gloss  of  the  Kabbi 
is,  "  Do  not  look  to  find  it  among  those  who  raise  their 
pride  to  heaven.  He  who  makes  himself  little  in  this 
world  for  the  sake  of  the  Law  will  be  great  in  the 
world  to  come."  The  Gospel  bids  the  forgiveness  of 
injuries,  and  the  Talmud  advises  as  follows  :  —  "They 
who  undergo  injury  without  retaliation,  who  suffer 
themselves  to  be  traduced  and  do  not  retort,  and  who 
accept  the  ills  of  life  cheerfully,  for  them  is  that  which 
was  written  in  the  prophets,  '  The  friends  of  God  shall 
shine  as  the  sun  in  his  strength.' "  And  again,  "  God 
ranges  Himself  on  the  side  of  the  persecuted,  whether 
the  persecutor  and  persecuted  are  equally  just  or 
equally  wicked.  N'ay,  as  He  assists  the  just  man  who 
is  persecuted  by  the  unjust,  so  He  even  aids  the  unjust 
when  he  is  persecuted  by  the  just."  Are  the  disciples 
to  be  wise  as  serpents  and  harmless  as  doves  ?  —  the 
Talmud  says  that  "  Israel  is  as  brave  as  a  lion,  wise  as 
a  serpent,  but  that  he  has  also  the  simplicity  of  a  dove." 
It  would  be  possible  to  extend  these  examples  indefi- 
nitely. It  would  be  possible  to  exhibit  similar  parallel- 
isms from  the  teaching  of  the  older  Platonists  and  the 
later   Stoics.       The  canons  of  morality  are  universal 


THE  JEWISH  LOVE  OF  HOME.  51 

and  immutable,  for  they  are  the  highest  laws  of  social 
life. 

And  here  should  be  noticed  one  marked  peculiarity 
in  the  ethics  of  ancient  Judaism,  which  is  precisely  con- 
tinued in  the  modern  development  of  this  primeval 
faith.  No  moral  code  has  ever  rested  so  profoundly  on 
home  duties  and  home  ties  —  on  the  love  of  parent  and 
child  —  as  the  Jewish  has.  The  birth  of  a  son  is  the 
highest  reward  for  Abraham's  faith.  Paternal  love 
almost  makes  a  hero  of  Jacob,  and  gives  dignity  to  a 
character  which  is  otherwise  furtive  and  mean.  What 
is  more  tragic  than  the  sorrow  of  Jephthah,  what  is 
brighter  than  the  filial  duty  of  Jonathan,  what  more 
touching  than  the  grief  of  David  over  that  rebellious 
son  who  inflicted  on  his  father  the  most  atrocious 
insults  that  could  have  been  perpetrated?  The 
Psalmist's  picture  of  a  pious  and  happy  family,  cf  the 
laborious  and  contented  husbandman,  whose  wife  is  as 
the  fruitful  vine,  whose  children  are  like  the  comely 
olive  trees,  full  of  assured  promise,  is  a  sketch,  the 
nature  of  which  is  perpetually  bright  and  fresh.  The 
sorrows  of  Jeremiah  are  over  wasted  homes ;  his  deep- 
est grief  is  felt  at  the  "  children  and  sucklings  swoon- 
ing in  the  streets  of  the  city,  who  faint  like  the  wounded 
in  battle,  and  j^our  out  their  soul  into  their  mother's 
bosom."  The  home  was  the  centre  of  Jewish  life,  the 
t}^e  of  that  archaic  epoch  when  every  man  did  that 
w^hich  was  right  in  his  own  eyes,  when  Israel  dwelt 
securely  under  his  vine  and  fig-tree,  of  the  golden  age 
of  the  nation.     Even  now  the  Jew,  with  no  little  color 


52  PAUL   OF  TARSUS. 

of  truth,  complains  that  Christianity  has  exalted  the 
monastic  spirit,  and  disparaged  home,  and  asks  for  the 
gain  which  social  life  has  eflfected  by  this  contempt  of 
the  natural  affections. 

The  sanctions  of  morality,  apart  from  such  evidence 
as  can  be  gained  from  the  experience  of  obedience 
and  the  blessings  which  such  obedience  entails,  are 
found  in  religion.  To  yearn  after  the  supernatural, 
and  thereby  to  satisfy  the  longings  of  the  soul  —  to 
address  one's  self  to  God,  so  that  the  weakness  of  hu- 
manity may  be  aided  in  achieving  the  great  destmy 
which  hes  before  it  —  to  trust  in  God,  that  He  can 
and  will  redress  the  evil  and  wrono--doins:  which  blot 
His  creation,  —  are  the  earliest  and  the  most  lasting 
religious  instincts,  and  belong  to  every  creed  except 
those  which  exhibit  the  Deity  as  a  remorseless  and 
inevitable  fate,  or  a  capricious  despot.  Even  ruined 
and  debased  religions  may  often  be  traced  to  a  pure 
original. 

The  Jewish  creed  recognized  the  long-suffering, 
the  beneficence,  the  providence  of  God.  He  was  the 
avenger  of  the  helpless,  the  judge  of  the  wicked,  the 
protector  of  His  jDCople,  the  defence  of  His  servants. 
He  was  surrounded  by  majesty,  by  light  unapproach- 
able, by  every  symbol  of  awftil  power.  But  He 
deigned  to  visit  men,  to  serve  and  save  them.  High 
as  His  dwelhng  is.  He  humbles  Himself  to  a  watchful 
providence  over  man.  He  is  King,  Teacher,  Father. 
This  last  title  is,  as  we  all  know.  His  universal  name  in 
the  New  Testament.     But  it  is  not  unknown  or  un- 


THE  IMMORTALITY  OF  TEE   SOUL.         53 

familiar  in  the  Old.  "  Doubtless,"  says  that  prophet, 
whose  writing  has  been  incorporated  with  the  sayings 
of  an  elder  Isaiah, "  Thou  art  our  Father ;  though  Abra- 
ham be  ignorant  of  us,  and  Israel  acknowledge  us  not. 
Thou,  O  God,  art  our  Father,  our  Redeemer."  The 
Paternity  of  God  extends  beyond  the  narrow  range  of 
human  kindred  or  human  patriotism.  There  was  a 
bitter  feud  between  E23hraim  and  Judah.  It  has  even 
continued  to  our  day,  —  is  a  feud  of  twenty-four  cen- 
turies, —  for  the  Samaritan  is  the  wasted  representa- 
tive of  the  Israelite  kingdom,  as  he  was  in  the  days  of 
Christ,  as  he  was  to  Benjamin  of  Tudela.  But  there 
was  one  Father  to  both,  —  to  the  worshipper  at  Jacob's 
well,  and  to  the  Pharisee  of  David's  city.  Nay,  the 
outcasts  of  Abraham  and  Isaac,  the  men  whom  Ezra 
and  Nehemiah  scornfully  rejected  fi'om  the  company 
of  those  who  were  restored  after  their  captivity,  could 
claim  Him  as  their  Father  and  Redeemer,  exiled  and 
mahgned  as  they  were. 

The  really  Jewish  scriptures  contain  no  affirmative 
statement  as  to  the  immortality  of  man's  soul.  They 
are  similarly  silent  as  to  that  final  judgment  which 
forms  so  marked  a  characteristic  in  the  religion  of 
Christianity.  We  know  that  even  when  some  of  the 
later  doctors  of  the  Law  taught  the  doctrine  of  man's 
immortality,  other  doctors  were  hostile  to  the  tenet. 
Nay,  even  those  who  accepted  the  doctrine  often  qual- 
ified it  by  a  wild  metempsychosis.  There  are,  they 
held,  a  certain  number  of  created  souls,  which  pass 
from  body  to  body,  and  when   their   transmigrations 


54  PAUL    OF   TARSUS. 

are  completed  the  Messiah  shall  come.  This  appears 
to  have  been  the  opinion  of  Josephus.  There  are 
traces  of  this  compromise  between  the  doctrine  of 
man's  immortality,  and  the  absence  of  recorded  au- 
thority on  the  subject,  in  the  language  of  the  gospels. 
The  antenatal  sin,  which  the  blind  man  in  the  Gos- 
pel of  St.  John  may  have  committed,  is  an  illustration. 
Nor  does  the  language  of  the  New  Testament  contra- 
vene the  more  refined  conception  which  was  included 
in  the  theory  of  transmigration,  that,  namely,  of  a 
purifying  process.  There  is  a  final  day  of  judgment, 
but  there  is  almost  complete  silence  as  to  the  inter- 
mediate condition  of  the  departed.  Once  only  Christ 
lifts  the  veil,  and  displays  the  rich  man  suffering,  re- 
pentant, but  not  despairing.  The  spiritual  Abraham, 
the  father  of  all,  does  not  address  the  lost  as  his  sons. 
It  is  well  known  that  the  Jews  were  divided  on  this 
subject,  —  that  the  Pharisees  accepted,  under  various 
forms,  the  doctrine  of  the  soul's  immortality,  of  the 
enduring  personality  of  the  dead,  and  that  the  Sad- 
ducees  rejected  the  doctrine,  or  at  least  held  that  the 
soul  was  absorbed  into  some  general  Intelligence  or 
Power.  It  would  seem  that  the  former  doctrine, 
which  Christianity  afiirined  with  peculiar  emphasis, 
was  adopted  after  the  captivity,  and  that  it  formed  a 
characteristic  tenet  of  the  stricter  spirituality  which 
the  ascetic  Pharisees  taught.  This  tenet  is  an  inevi- 
table consequence  of  the  sj^iritual  life.  If  men  are  once 
persuaded  that  the  enjoyment  of  life  is  not  its  end, 
if   they   understand    that  man    does  not  merely  live 


THE  IMMORTALITY  OF  THE  SOUL.  65 

to  receive  his  just  portion  in  those  good  things  of  ma- 
terial existence  which  a  beneficent  Providence  bestows, 
and  a  wise  economy  distributes  and  secures,  they  nec- 
essarily conclude  that  man's  being  is  not  bounded 
by  his  visible  personality.  It  is,  indeed,  plain  that 
the  moral  and  intellectual  progress  of  society  is  due  to 
the  efforts  of  those  who  deliberately  daff*  the  lawful 
pleasures  of  life,  in  order  that  they  may  effect  the  gen- 
eral good  of  humanity.  But  neither  the  stimulus  to 
this  prodigious  service  nor  its  reward  can  be  found  in 
the  satisfaction  with  which  a  limited  existence  could 
survey  the  unlimited  good  which  it  has  effected.  "  If," 
says  the  apostle  Paul,  in  that  remarkable  passage,  where 
deep  conviction  straggles  for  eloquence,  "  our  hopes  in 
Christ  are  bounded  by  this  life  only,  we  are  the  most 
l^itiable  of  mankind."  It  is  not  impossible  to  suffer 
patiently  on  belialf  of  a  creed  which  offers  no  prospect 
but  annihilation ;  it  is  impossible  to  do  bravely,  to 
labor  with  unceasing  and  untired  energy,  to  go  about 
doing  active  good,  and  withal  to  believe  that  all  this 
power  and  force,  this  concentrated  influence  which 
rouses  and  elevates  the  soul  of  a  generation,  and  leaves 
permanent  effects  on  the  whole  nature  of  man,  is  ab- 
ruptly terminated  in  an  eternal  negation.  And  as  the 
doctrine  of  the  soul's  immortality  begins  with  the  de- 
velopment of  the  spiritual  life,  so  it  is  intensified  and 
confirmed  by  the  determination  to  serve  man  for  God's 
sake.  The  doctors  who  compassed  sea  and  land  to 
make  one  proselyte,  could,  not  but  affirm  that  the  soul 
which  had  enlightened  his  fellow-man  in  the  knowledge 


66  PAUL   OF  TARSUS. 

of  God  partakes  of  the  eternity  which  belongs  to  the 
Most  High.  The  fruit  of  their  labor  may  have  been 
worthless,  a  mere  growth  of  malignity  and  pride,  a 
mere  slavery  to  the  letter,  but  the  activity  which  is 
patient  in  winning  souls,  no  matter  to  what  creed,  can- 
not but  believe  in  its  own  immortality. 

The  leading  tenet  of  Jewish  teaching  was  the  dig- 
nity of  man.  It  is  a  tradition  of  the  Rabbans  that 
God  said  to  Jacob,  "  I  am  the  God  of  those  on  high, 
thou  art  the  god  of  those  below,"  —  a  legend  derived 
from  or  confii-med  by  these  words  of  the  Psalmist 
w^hich  are  quoted  by  Christ,  as  a  patent  justification 
of  His  claim  to  the  Divine  Sonship.  The  Kabbalists 
taught  that  the  true  habitation  of  God,  of  which  tab- 
ernacle and  temple  were  but  types,  was  the  body  of 
man ;  and  they  compared  each  member  of  man's  body 
to  some  one  or  the  other  among  the  divisions  of  the 
building,  placing  the  Holy  of  Holies  in  the  heart. 
They  extracted  from  this  symbolism  at  once  the  duty 
of  religious  purity,  and  the  obligation  of  charity,  since 
the  wound  of  one  part  in  the  mystical  as  well  as  the 
natural  body  is  the  suffering  of  all  parts.  And  in  the 
same  strain,  as  if  by  way  of  comment  on  the  decla- 
ration that  man  is  created  in  the  image  of  God,  the 
Jewish  doctors  affirmed  that  "the  soul  of  man  is 
higher  than  the  nature  of  angels ;  that  man  is  the 
counsellor  of  God  in  creation.  His  associate  in  the  work 
of  heaven  and  earth ;  that  he  is  the  stay  and  foun- 
dation of  the  universe ;  and  that  the  angels  desire  to 
hold  converse  with  the  just,  that  they  may  learn  of 


THE  REGENERATION  OF  MAN.  37 

them  the  mysteries  of  the  eternal  God."  And  as  the 
last  favor  which  the  Almighty  grants  His  favored  ser- 
vants, He  deigns  to  let  them  know  His  incommuni- 
cable name.  It  is  in  accordance  with  this  highest 
mark  of  divine  condescension  and  indwelling,  that  ac- 
cording to  the  Talmudists,  the  wonders  which  Christ 
did  were  due  to  the  power  which  He  possessed  from 
the  full  revelation  of  what  constituted  that  mysterious 
title.  The  same  idea  is  current  in  Mohammedan 
legends.  It  is  by  the  possession  of  that  name  that 
the  great  Solomon  gained  his  empire  over  all  creation, 
over  men,  and  angels,  over  birds  and  beasts,  over  genii 
and  devils.  So,  says  Benjamin  of  Tudela,  David  el 
Roy,  who  claimed  about  the  middle  of  the  twelfth 
centm-y  to  be  the  Messiah,  and  who  thereupon  stirred 
up  the  Jewish  nation  in  the  caliphat  of  Bagdad, 
exercised  magical  powers  by  virtue  of  the  same  rare 
knowledge. 

According  to  the  teachers  of  the  Talmud,  the  re- 
generation of  man  was  due  to  the  Eternal  Word.  This 
was  expounded  to  be,  "  God  incarnate  in  the  Law,  and 
continuing  itself  from  age  to  age."  Man  is  degraded 
by  the  sin  of  Adam,  but  restored  by  this  Divine  Es- 
sence, which  permeates  his  heart  and  life,  which  through 
him  purifies  and  restores  the  world  and  all  creation. 
It  makes  man,  by  his  own  soul  and  will,  by  his  own 
conscience,  the  first  and  chief,  nay,  almost  the  solitary 
instrument  of  his  own  regeneration.  How  man  may 
best  facilitate  the  process  is  matter  of  teaching,  and  the 
details  of  the  teaching  are  to  be  found  in  the  works 
3* 


58  PAUL    OF   TARSUS. 

of  the  Jewish  schoolmen.  "  The  doctrine,"  says  one  of 
the  latest  expositors  of  Hebrew  theology,  "  which  most 
nearly  represents  the  Jewish  machinery  of  regeneration, 
is  that  which  is  known  in  Ecclesiastical  history  as  Semi- 
Pelagianism  —  which  admits  the  infirmity,  the  sinful- 
ness, of  human  nature,  but  w^hich  also  conceives  it 
possible  that  man  may  work  out  his  own  salvation." 
The  redemption  which  the  Word  effects,  according  to 
this  author  (Ben-amozegh),  is  wholly  internal.  "The 
passion,  the  condemnation,  the  death,  the  garden  of 
olives,  the  Prgetorium,  and  Golgotha,  are  all  internal, 
subjective  facts,  having  for  their  theatre  the  spirit  and 
heart  of  the  man,  where  the  Word  sacrifices  itself  per- 
petually for  the  benefit  of  humanity,  and  on  the  altar 
w^hich  the  man  raises  for  himself"  Man,  in  short,  is 
self-made  —  the  architect  of  his  spiritual,  as  well  as  of 
his  temporal  fortunes  —  the  suflicient  master  of  his  owti 
eternal  destiny.  This  seems  like  the  teaching  of  Hegel; 
it  is  not  far  fi'om  the  teaching  of  the  Gemara. 

The  Jew  was  encouraged  in  being  profoundly  na- 
tional. It  is  needless  to  adduce  proofs  of  this  fact,  or 
of  the  endurance  of  the  sentiment.  That  the  national 
feeling  was  hardened  by  centuries  of  persecution  is  cer- 
tain; that  it  has  been  weakened  by  the  development 
of  toleration  first,  and  of  civil  equality  afterwards,  is  no 
less  manifest.  That  a  few  generations  of  justice  will 
almost  efface  the  characteristics  of  Judaism,  may  be 
safely  predicted  from  the  conditions  of  human  nature. 
The  effort,  which  is  now  made  to  prove  that  the  pecul- 
iar tenets  of  Christianity  had  their  origin  in  the  teach- 


JEWISH  ETHICS  NOBLE.  69 

ing  of  those  Rabbis  who  flourished  in  the  Asmonean 
epoch,  reveals  a  different  spirit  fi-om  that  contemptu- 
ous hatred  which  retorted  scorn  on  the  savage  persecu- 
tors of  the  Jewish  creed.  The  comparative  gentleness 
with  which  the  Jewish  theologian  of  the  nineteenth 
century  treats  the  mission  and  teaching  of  Christ  is  of 
another  temper  to  that  which  induced  the  Spanish  Jew 
in  the  twelfth  century  to  speak  of  Jesus,  in  the  phrase 
of  the  Talmud,  as  "  that  man "  —  as  the  disobedient 
prophet  whom  the  lion  slew.  The  Israelite  of  our  day 
finds  abundant  authority  in  the  writings  of  the  He- 
brew schoolmen  to  warrant  his  assertion,  that  these 
sages  taught  the  equality  and  fraternity  of  mankind. 
But  it  should  be  remembered  that  the  reasonings  of 
the  teacher  are  no  evidence  of  the  temper  which  in- 
flamed the  pupil,  still  less  of  the  passions  and  fears 
which  occupied  rulers  and  people.  The  Rabban  may 
be  calm  and  tolerant,  while  the  chief  priests  and  elders 
are  rousing  the  fury  of  an  excitable  populace. 

As  the  religious  life  of  the  earlier  Israelite  was  com- 
plete without  the  tenet  of  the  soul's  immortality,  so  it 
was  satisfied  with  such  felicity  as  can  be  obtained  by 
obedience  to  a  moral  law.  The  later  apologist  of  the 
Jewish  creed,  as  contained  in  the  traditions  and  glosses 
of  the  Jewish  schoolmen,  may  speak  of  human  life  as 
the  vestibule  — ■  as  the  eve  of  the  Divine  Sabbath  —  as 
the  time  of  labor  —  as  the  now,  while  eternity  is  desig- 
nated as  tlie  time  of  retribution  —  as  to-morrow.  "  One 
whole  hour,"  say  the  same  authorities,  "  of  virtue  and  re- 
pentance are  worth  more  than  all  eternity  —  for  eternity 


60  PAUL   OF  TARSUS. 

can  give  no  more  than  the  man  brings  to  it,  —  and 
thus  it  is  not  without  reason  that  Solomon  said,  'a 
living  dog  is  better  than  a  dead  lion.' "  But  the 
eternity  is  itself  a  gloss  on  the  text.  It  takes  its  sub- 
stance from  the  life  of  the  man,  not  its  color  only.  It 
is  a  Paradise  —  an  Elysium  —  a  garden  of  divine  de- 
lights —  an  eternity  of  the  land  of  jDromise.  There 
have  been  ascetic  Jews,  as  there  have  been  j^roselytiz- 
ing  Jews.  But  the  tendency  of  the  Jew  is  to  be  in- 
tensely active  in  the  material  occupations  of  life  —  to 
be  cosmopolitan  in  his  treatment  of  secular  business  — 
to  know  no  country,  no  patriotism,  no  allegiance  — 
nothing  but  obedience  to  the  political  institutions 
under  which  he  lives,  and  the  value  of  which  he  thor- 
oughly comprehends.  "  Throw  no  stone,"  says  the 
Jewish  proverb,  "into  the  well  from  which  thou  hast 
drawn  water"  — implying  that  men  should  be  respect- 
ful to  the  society  which  shelters  them.  Israel,  if  it  be 
any  thing,  is  an  imperium  in  imperio.  When  it  ceases 
to  be  an  institution,  it  ceases  to  be  a  special  creed  —  is 
dissolved  into  some  one  or  the  other  of  those  creeds 
which  are  either  rigidly  monotheistic  and  iconoclast,  or 
which  are  developments  of  the  monotheistic  tenet.  If 
the  time  had  been  favorable  to  it  —  had  any  terms  of 
compromise  been  found  —  Judaism  might  have  been 
merged  in  some  religion  of  antiquity,  as  it  is  likely  that 
it  was  deeply  colored  by  the  monotheism  of  the  Per- 
sian conquerors  of  Babylon,  for  the  prophet  speaks  of 
Cyrus  as  the  Lord's  shepherd  —  as  His  anointed,  and 
Daniel,  the  hero  of  Ezekiel's  prophecy,  is  the  chief 
of  the  magicians  at  Babylon. 


TEMPER   OF  MODERN  JUDAISM.  61 

The  Jews  of  the  first  century  held  that  a  pagan  who 
confessed  God,  and  kept  the  moral  law,  might  be  saved  ; 
that  Socrates  and  Plato  would  be  in  Paradise  with 
Abraham,  Isaac  and  Moses.  Abraham,  they  said,  was 
the  first-born  of  the  promise,  only  because  he  was  the 
first  proselyte.  "  I  call  heaven  and  earth  to  witness," 
says  a  doctor  of  the  Law,  "both  man  and  woman, 
slave  and  fi-ee,  Jew  and  Pagan,  it  is  only  by  the  works 
of  man,  that  the  Spirit  descends  on  him."  "Why," 
says  another,  "  is  there  only  one  race  of  man  ?  It  is 
that  no  man  may  say,  My  father  and  mother  are  greater 
than  thine."  And,  to  prove  that  these  words  werq  not 
without  the  confirmation  of  facts,  we  are  informed, 
that  the  teachers  of  Hillel  and  Schemaiah  were  prose- 
lytes, that  one  of  the  great  and  venerated  doctors  was 
descended  from  Haman  the  Amalekite,  another  from 
Sennacherib,  and  others  from  Sisera ;  the  legend  typi- 
fying that  Israel  would  not  shut  its  doors  to  those  who 
were  the  ofispring  of  the  most  hateful  names  in  Jewish 
history.  Nor  was  this  welcome  limited  to  strangers 
of  illustrious  learning  and  virtue.  The  prophetic  au- 
thority of  Zephaniah  was  cited  as  a  proof  that  the  final 
unity  of  mankind  was  part  of  the  counsels  of  God. 

The  Jew  averred  that  the  revelation  of  God  in  the 
Law  was  complete.  "  '  The  Law,'  indeed,  was  not  com- 
prised in  the  Pentafeuch  only.  This  is  the  code  of  the 
Jews,  then*  civil,  political,  ritual  code  —  a  monument  of 
vigorous  and  manly  genius,  a  system  of  which  the  ex- 
emplar is  a  characteristic,  indestructible  nationality. 
This  code  is  ennobled  and  exalted  by  inspiration;  it 


62  PAUL   OF  TARSUS. 

breathes  with  a  moral,  spiritual,  dogmatic  vitality, 
which  gives  an  intense  energy  to  all  its  details,  but  it 
is  only  a  code."  It  needs  an  interpreter.  For  a  series 
of  ages  this  interpretation  was  found  in  the  teaching 
of  the  prophets,  those  sages  whom  God  raised  up  in 
order  to  declare  His  will,  or  to  announce  His  judg- 
ments. Sometimes  these  men,  like  Samuel,  were 
brought  up  within  the  very  precincts  of  the  tabernacle, 
and  lived  daily  within  sight  of  the  Shekinah.  At 
another  time,  the  interpreter  of  the  age,  like  a  Mara- 
bout or  Dervish,  appears  suddenly  from  the  desert  or 
the  mountain,  clad  in  the  rough  dress  of  the  Ishmaelite, 
and  denounces  the  apostate  king,  or  faithless  people 
scorching  them  Avdth  the  wrath  of  God,  and  zealous 
even  to  slaying.  Another  is  the  wise  counsellor,  the 
polished  courtier,  but  one  who  never  forgets  his  mission 
from  the  Almighty;  who  ejects  a  perfidious,  idolatrous, 
murderous  dynasty,  substitutes  a  more  obedient  family 
in  its  room,  and  then  counsels,  warns,  strengthens  the 
monarch  as  Elisha  does.  Later  on,  the  prophet  is  a 
still  more  important  personage.  He  is  called  by  no 
succession  or  ordination,  but  by  the  voice  of  God,  by 
the  Word  of  the  Lord,  by  some  inward  warning,  or  in 
some  ecstatic  vision.  He  is  a  scion  of  the  royal  house, 
as  Isaiah ;  or  a  herdsman,  as  Amos ;  or  a  priest,  as 
Jeremiah  —  whose  statesmanship  was  unavailing  to 
save  the  fallino-  throne  of  David  ao-ainst  the  headstronsj 

o  o  o 

king,  and  his  more  headstrong  nobles ;  or  another 
priest,  as  Ezekiel,  the  captive  in  the  land  of  the  Chal- 
deans ;  or  the  comforter  of  a  ruined  nation,  who  assures 


THE  JEWISH  PROPHET.  63 

them  of  God's  sure  though  tardy  vengeance  on  the 
enemies  of  Israel.  He  is  sent  indifferently  to  the  re- 
volted house  of  Joseph,  or  to  the  faithful  tribe  of  Judah. 
His  mission  is  to  awaken  the  conscience,  to  purify  the 
heart,  to  call  back  the  people  to  the  God  of  their  fath- 
ers, whom  they  have  forsaken  in  word  and  thought. 

The  nearest  parallel  to  the  Jewish  prophet  is  to  be 
found  in  those  reformers  who  have  set  themselves  to 
the  task  of  turning,  in  some  age  of  spiritual  deadness, 
the  hearts  of  erring  children  to  the  purer  religion  of 
their  fathers.  Such  were  Basil  and  Benedict,  Francis 
and  Dominic,  Wiklif,  Luther,  Loyola,  Wesley  —  men 
whom  their  own  generation  has  intensely  loved,  and 
intensely  hated,  but  who  have  assuredly  stirred  human- 
ity from  its  very  depths,  who  have  effected  permanent 
revivals.  In  one  particular,  however,  these  men  dif- 
fered notably  from  the  Jewish  prophets.  They  were 
ecclesiastics,  not  statesmen.  They  founded  sects.  They 
reformed  the  religion  of  their  day,  but  they  created  an 
organization  by  which  they  fondly  hoped  that  their 
spirit  would  live,  their  work  be  continued.  But  in  the 
prophetic  age,  there  was  no  place  for  a  sect.  The 
Jewish  creed  had  few  dogmas  :  it  may  be  said  to  have 
had  only  one,  —  I  am  the  Lord  your  God.  The  disci- 
pline of  Jewish  society  was  the  perpetual  interpreta- 
tion of  the  letter  by  the  spirit,  in  case  the  Law  was 
perverted  to  unrighteous  ends ;  or  more  fi-equently  the 
warning  of  the  Almighty  Word,  the  chastisement  of 
the  Almighty  judgment  on  public  and  private  sins. 
But  it  is  impossible  to  found  a  sect  except  by  dogmas, 


64  PAUL    OF   TARSUS. 

impossible  to  maintain  one  without  a  permanently 
organized  discipline. 

The  open  vision  passed  away.  The  Jews  of  the 
restoration  entrenched  themselves  in  sacerdotalism. 
They  exacted  evidence  of  pm'e  descent  from  all  those 
who  were  to  partake  of  the  privilege  of  Israel.  We 
are  informed  that  this  strictness  led  to  the  extensive 
forgery  of  pedigrees.  They  refused  alliance  with  the 
Samaritans,  and  created  a  perpetual  schism  between 
themselves  and  their  own  kindred.  They  read  that 
the  Ammonite  and  Moabite  should  not  come  within 
the  congi'egation  for  ever,  and  the  Jews  of  Nehemiah's 
age  expelled  the  children  of  mixed  marriages  from  the 
nation.  This  rigorous  nationalist  forgot  the  permission 
which  the  great  lawgiver  gave  that  the  settlers  in  the 
Promised  Land  might  marry  the  women  of  the  coun- 
try, and  that  the  prince  of  the  house  of  Judah  was 
wedded  to  Rahab  of  Jericho.  Nay,  was  there  not  one 
woman,  whose  gentleness  and  love  have  made  her  for 
generations  the  type  of  perfect  womanhood,  and  was 
not  she  a  daughter  of  the  accursed  Moab,  of  the  race 
which  hired  Balaam,  and  which  made  Israel  to  sin? 
And  yet  was  not  this  woman  also  married  to  the  chief 
of  the  house  of  Judah,  and  did  she  not  become  the  an- 
cestress of  David? 

The  Rabbi  became  the  successor  of  the  prophet.  It 
is  probable  that  the  school  of  this  teacher  was  formed 
on  the  model  of  those  academies  in  which  the  sages 
of  Greece  instructed  their  pupils.  It  was  in  such  a 
school  that  the  youthful  Jesus  was  found,  engaged  in 


THE  JEWISH  RABBI.  65 

questioning  the  master,  and  answering  those  queries 
which  the  master  put  to  his  disciples.  Such  questions 
and  answers,  such  sayings  of  the  teacher,  were  handed 
down  orally,  and  gathered  at  last  into  those  commen- 
taries which  are  known  as  Talmud,  or  Gemara,  or 
Kabbala.  They  formed  that  vast  body  of  tradition 
out  of  which  the  Scribe  and  the  Pharisee  obtained  their 
skill  in  casuistry,  sometimes  indeed  using  their  knowl- 
edge to  fortify  the  true  interpretation  of  the  Law,  often 
as  a  power  by  which  they  might  rule  and  oppress  their 
fellows. 

There  was,  therefore,  a  continual  commentary  on  the 
Law,  which  professed  to  be  a  revelation  of  its  meaning. 
The  Jew  declared  that  this  revelation  was  complete. 
The  Christian  declared  that  it  was  imperfect,  or  at  best 
could  only  be  interpreted  by  the  commentary  of  the 
Gospel.  The  gist  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  is  that 
the  Son  of  God  has  revealed  that  which  was  unknown, 
has  interpreted  that  which  was  obscure,  has  fulfilled 
that  which  was  inchoate.  The  founder  of  Christianity 
asserts  the  high  prophetic  gifts  of  the  Baptist,  but  puts 
him  below  the  least  in  the  kingdom  of  Heaven.  "  The 
Law,"  says  the  great  Apostle,  "  was  our  schoolmaster, 
to  bring  us  to  Christ."  It  dealt  with  the  age  of  child- 
hood :  the  Christian  has  come  to  the  stature  of  a  full- 
grown  man. 

While  the  Christian  claimed  a  full  revelation,  com- 
pared with  which  the  light  of  Sinai  was  dim,  and  the 
utterance  of  the  prophet  faltering,  the  wild  theogony 
of  the  Gnostics  accepted  the  earlier  revelation  as  com- 


66  PAUL    OF   TARSUS. 

plete,  but  asserted  the  development  of  the  Divine  Na^ 
ture  itself.  They  held,  we  are  told,  that  the  God  of 
the  Jews  was  an  imperfect  essence,  both  in  his  moral 
and  spiritual  nature,  and  that,  his  function  over,  he  was 
succeeded  by  a  greater,  holier,  and  more  powerful  Being. 
It  seems  that  this  dreamy  succession  of  supernatural 
existences  was  developed  from  the  bosom  of  Judaism, 
if,  as  is  commonly  reported.  Gnosticism  has  Simon  of 
Samaria  for  its  founder.  It  is  supposed  by  most  per- 
sons that  it  is  to  these  transcendental  genealogies  of 
the  Gnostics  that  St.  Paul  refers  in  his  First  Epistle  to 
Timothy,  and  it  is  alleged  that  such  an  allusion  casts  a 
doubt  on  the  authenticity  of  the  epistle.  The  objec- 
tion does  not,  for  many  reasons,  seem  valid.  M.  Asher, 
the  editor  and  commentator  on  Benjamin  of  Tudela, 
understands  these  genealogies  to  be  the  pedigrees  which 
Avere  forged  after  the  captivity,  which  are,  he  adds,  to 
be  found  in  the  book  of  Chronicles,  and  which  were  as 
apocryphal  and  silly  as  their  modern  equivalents.  If 
this  interpretation  be  correct,  the  Apostle  is  urging  his 
disciple  to  discourage  the  vanity  of  the  Jewish  con- 
verts at  Ephesus,  and  thus  is  reaffirming  the  necessity 
for  repudiating  every  tendency  towards  distinctive 
Judaism  in  a  Christian  church. 

The  Christianity  of  the  Apostolic  age  ran  a  double 
danger  from  Judaism.  It  had  to  withstand  the  fuiious 
animosity  of  those  who  regarded  Christ  as  a  deceiver, 
and  His  apostles  as  the  emissaries  of  a  pernicious  and 
unpatriotic  sect.  It  had  also  to  resist  the  still  more 
dangerous  intrigues  of  those  who  insisted  on  conformity 


IMPERFECTION  OF  JUDAISM.  67 

to  the  Jewish  ritual  as  a  condition  of  membership  in 
the  new  Church,  who  \vould  have  made  the  Jerusalem 
which  is  above,  and  which  is  the  mother  of  all  Chris- 
tian men,  a  mere  cramped  and  narrow  fiiubourg  in  the 
metro23olis  of  Judaism.  The  bitterness  of  the  former 
could  find  no  stronger  language  of  hatred  than  the 
words  w^hich  the  Jews  addressed  to  Christ :  "  Say  we 
not  well  that  thou  art  a  Samaritan  and  hast  a  devil?" 
—  combining  in  the  charge  the  intensest  feelings  of 
political  and  polemical  rancor.  The  pedantry  of  the 
latter  is  the  first  example  of  that  spirit  which  has  per- 
petually vexed  Christianity,  in  its  attempts  to  coerce 
conscience  by  a  rigid  and  implacable  dogmatism. 
"  Except  ye  be  circumcised  and  keep  the  law  of  Moses, 
ye  cannot  be  saved."  This  is  the  first  of  these  anath- 
emas by  which  men  have  tried  to  fetter  Christianity. 
Perhaps  our  own  age  has  said  the  last. 

It  has  been  said  that  in  the  administration  of  secular 
business,  the  majority  should  rule,  the  minority  should 
influence.  But  they  wdio  are  concerned  with  such 
business,  are  much  more  ready  to  aflirm  the  former 
position  than  they  are  to  allow  the  latter.  In  our  own 
country,  people  very  often  attempt  to  coerce  the  minor- 
ity by  calumniating  its  objects,  and  one  of  the  common- 
est words  used  for  this  purpose  is  the  term  unenglish. 
Now,  the  nationalist  party  among  the  Jews  might  have 
called  the  converts  unjewish.  Heated  by  a  narrow 
patriotism,  they  were  ready  to  join  the  cry  of  the 
depraved,  rabble  in  the  heathen  cities,  and  stigmatize 
the  Christian  as  the  enemy  of  the  human  race,  because 


68  PAUL   OF   TARSUS. 

his  sympathies  were  comprehensive.  Now,  we  need 
not  be  told  that  religious  animosities  are  inconceivably 
more  bitter  than  political  differences  are.  Men  who 
will  tolerate  one  whom  they  call  a  partisan  are  implac- 
able towards  another  whom  they  are  pleased  to  name  a 
schismatic  or  a  heretic.  The  modern  Jew  denies  that 
he  ever  entertains,  or  that  his  race  has  ever  entertained, 
religions  enmities.  The  history  of  Paul's  travels  is 
abundant  proof  to  the  contrary.  And  yet  Paul  always 
abstains  from  that  topic  which  invariably  irritated  the 
Jews  to  frenzy,  —  the  charge,  namely,  that  they  had 
repudiated  the  teaching,  and  murdered  the  person  of 
Christ.  They  hear  him  till  he  speaks  of  his  mission  to 
the  Gentiles.  He  has  only  to  avow  this  as  the  business 
of  his  life,  and  they  strive  to  tear  him  in  pieces,  con- 
spu-e  to  assassinate  him. 

It  cannot  be  denied  that  the  teaching  of  Christianity 
ignores  patriotism.  It  ignores  it,  however,  only  because 
patriotism  is  transient,  is  inferior  to  the  large  purposes 
which  can  be  obtained  by  evangelizing  a  federal  hu- 
manity. The  State  is  superior  to  the  family,  and  asserts 
its  claim  to  break  up  all  domestic  ties  in  view  of  the 
public  good,  for  it  sacrifices  the  father  in  the  citizen. 
But  it  does  not,  except  under  this  constraint,  disparage 
the  femily;  on  the  contrary,  it  cherishes  and  encour- 
ages the  love  of  home.  And,  similarly,  the  claims  of  a 
federal  humanity  are  stronger  than  those  of  patriotism, 
and,  as  civilization  advances,  the  latter  will  be  sacrificed 
if  it  clashes  with  the  former.  Patriotism  is  encouraged 
only  as  the  school  of  a  higher  life.     And,  it  should  be 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  PATRIOTISM.  69 

remembered,  that  if  patriotism  has  given  magnificent 
examples  of  self-sacrifice,  of  heroic  devotion,  of  ardent 
courage,  of  noble  enterprise,  these  very  qualities  have 
been  called  out  because  a  spurious  loyalty  has  armed 
the  oppressor  with  a  power  which  a  true  patriotism  has 
sometimes  successfully  defied.  But  where,  alas,  could 
the  preacher  of  the  apostolic  age  find  the  material  for 
patriotic  impulse  in  the  hopeless  slavery  of  the  Roman 
Empire?  He  is  turned,  perforce,  to  the  civitas  Dei. 
He  does  not,  indeed,  forget  to  prescribe  the  conduct  of 
a  pure  and  happy  home.  Between  that  and  the  spirit- 
ual kingdom  there  was  a  desert.  If  the  Lord  had  not 
shortened  those  days,  no  flesh  should  be  saved. 

The  sacrifice  of  life,  of  home,  of  father  and  mother, 
of  husband,  of  wife,  of  child,  is  demanded  only  as  an 
alternative  to  the  desertion  of  God.  The  State  claims  all 
these  possessions ;  if  its  own  being  is  imperilled,  often 
if  its  own  pride  is  wounded,  its  ambition  is  unsated. 
And  can  God,  whom  all  religion  recognizes  as  the 
Author  of  all  benefits,  claim  less  than  the  exigencies 
of  human  society  demand  from  its  citizens  ?  Is  loyalty 
due  to  king,  race,  country ;  is  political  unity  a  boon  for 
which  no  sacrifice  is  too  costly ;  and  is  no  hearty  alle- 
giance due  to  the  Father  of  heaven  and  earth ;  is  the 
maintenance  of  a  universal  gospel  worth  no  sacrifice 
from  those  who  profess  to  be  the  city  of  the  Great 
Bang?  The  closer,  the  tenderer,  the  more  afiectionate 
are  the  relations  which  religion  affirms  to  exist  between 
man  and  his  Maker,  the  more  earnest  must  needs  be 
the  devotion   of  the  former  to  the  latter.     It  is  the 


TO  PAUL   OF  TARSUS. 

Paternity  of  God  which  is  foreshadowed  in  the  Old 
Testament,  but  which  thoroughly  permeates  the  New. 

The  hostility  wljich  the  Jews  of  the  apostolic  age 
entertained  towards  the  Church  was  akin  to  that  which 
the  Jew  of  Palestine  bore  to  the  Samaritan.  The  en- 
mity which  men  are  apt  to  feel  towards  those  who 
swerve  from  some  particulars  of  the  faith,  is  far  bitterer 
than  that  which  they  cherish  against  unbelievers.  We 
have  daily  exj^erience  of  such  a  temper  among  sectaries. 
And  it  is  clear,  notwithstanding  the  general  affirmation 
of  Jewish  doctors,  that  there  is  not,  and  must  not  be, 
an  eternity  of  punishment ;  that  the  Christian  reforma- 
tion is  glanced  at  in  the  statement,  that  "he  who  pro- 
fanes holy  things,  who  despises  solemnities,  who  annuls 
our  alliance  with  Abraham  our  father,  who  gives  to  the 
law  a  sense  contrary  to  the  true,  who  puts  his  neighbor 
to  the  blush  in  public  —  will  have  no  place  in  the  world 
to  come."  The  zeal  of  Saul  was  shared  by  other  zealots. 
High  Priest  and  Council,  Sadducee  and  Pharisee,  were 
of  one  accord  in  the  cry,  —  "  Away  with  such  a  fellow 
from  the  earth." 

Still  more  dangerous,  however,  was  the  narrow  con- 
science of  the  converted  Jew.  To  him  the  ritual  and 
discipline  of  Moses  were  the  unalterable  will  of  the 
Almighty.  Departure  from  the  covenant  involved  the 
terrible  doom  of  anathema  from  his  people,  obedience 
to  it  was  the  peremptory  condition  of  the  Divine  bless- 
ing and  fiivor.  Was  it  not  written,  that  Moses,  speak- 
ing by  the  power  of  God,  warned  Israel  to  obedience ; 
and  did  he  not  utter,  on   those  who   disobeyed   the 


JEWISH  OBJECTIONS.  71 

statutes  and  commandments  of  the  Law,  those  terrible 
curses  which  are  found  in  the  last  revelations  of  the 
Pentateuch?  Had  it  not  been  by  disobedience  that 
Israel  was  scattered,  impoverished,  humiliated,  en- 
slaved ?  Had  he  not  preserved  his  national  existence 
by  the  righteousness  of  some,  by  the  remnant  which 
saved  the  race  fi-om  becoming  as  Sodom  and  as 
Gomorrah  ?  Do  not  Law,  chronicle,  prophet,  confirm 
this  obligation ;  is  not  Jewish  history  a  continual  con- 
solation to  the  faithful,  a  fearful  warning  to  those  who 
forget  God  ?  Christ  came  to  fulfil  the  Law  :  He  ex- 
pressly stated  that  He  was  not  here  to  destroy  it.  Can 
you,  who  were  with  Him  from  the  beginning,  —  who 
were  witnesses  of  His  life.  His  death.  His  resurrection,  — 
who  had  been  appointed  to  this  office  by  the  Wisdom 
of  God,  by  Him  who  knew  whom  He  had  chosen  —  can 
you  recall  any  saying  of  His  in  which  he  revoked  the 
law  of  Moses  ?  For  ages  that  law  has  made  us  a  pecul- 
iar people,  by  it  we  have  resisted  an  idolatrous  world, 
through  it  we  have  known  and  worshipped  the  God  of 
our  fathers  —  can  we  abandon  it  now?  How  can  we 
be  one  fold,  under  one  shepherd,  except  by  one  obe- 
dience ?  How  can  the  Gentiles  be  raised  up  as  children 
to  Abraham,  except  they  keep  the  covenant  which  was 
once  delivered  to  the  father  of  them  who  are  faithful  ? 
In  something  like  this  fashion,  they  who  came  down 
from  Jerusalem  must  have  argued  at  Antioch  and 
Ephesus,  in  Galatia  and  in  Crete,  even  after  Peter  had 
given  his  healing  counsel,  Paul  had  narrated  the^^success 
of  his  mission,  and  James  had  uttered  the  terms  of  the 


72  PAUL   OF  TARSUS. 

compromise  wliich  the  apostolic  college  proposed  and 
authorized. 

Even  if  the  ancient  Law  had  not  been  revealed  with 
so  much  solemnity,  supported  by  such  sanctions,  con- 
fii-med  by  such  examples,  enforced  by  such  warnings,  — 
had  it  not  made  a  nation  illustrious,  a  page  in  the 
world's  history  luminous  and  real,  —  had  it  not  twined 
itself  so  closely  round  the  heart  and  brain  of  the  Jew, 
—  the  mere  habit  of  obedience  to  its  precepts  would 
have  given  it  sanctity  and  majesty  in  the  eyes  of  those 
who  had  followed  it.  To  us,  at  this  distance  of  time, 
it  may  seem  strange  that  the  Jewish  ritual  should  have 
had  such  an  overwhelming  influence  over  the  Jewish 
Christian;  that  he  should  not  have  eagerly  embraced 
relief  from  observances  which  his  forefathers  could  not 
bear,  and  which  he  had  found  oppressively  onerous. 
But  a  little  reflection  will  remind  us  of  the  tenacity 
with  which  men  cling  to  forms,  guarantees,  rites,  obh- 
gations,  the  origin  and  continuance  of  which  are  far 
less  suggestive  and  intelligible  than  the  unexpanded 
ritual  of  Moses,  —  which  are  as  oppressive  and  unsatis- 
fying as  the  grievous  burdens  with,  which  the  Pharisees 
loaded  men's  shoulders,  and  which  they  made  necessary 
to  the  Jewish  salvation. 

But  whatever  may  have  been  the  attachment  which 
the  converted  Jew  felt  towards  the  code  of  Moses,  it 
was  imperatively  necessary  that  the  Gentile  convert 
should  be  freed  from  them.  Even  had  he  not  resented 
the  interference  with  his  own  mission,  —  had  he  not 
been  indignant  at  an  attempt  to  reconstruct  the  foun- 


JUDAISM  REPUDIATED  BY  PAUL.  73 

dation  of  his  gospel,  —  had  he  not  been  stirred  to 
denounce  those,  as  he  does  over  and  over  again,  who 
were  designedly  creating  schisms  in  the  Christian  com- 
munity, —  Paul  was  too  acute  and  far-sighted  a  man  not 
to  discern  that  the  mission  of  Christ  would  be  annulled, 
that  Christ  would  profit  the  convert  nothing,  that  He 
would  be  of  no  efiect  to  mankind,  if  men  suffered  them- 
selves to  submit  to  the  bondage  of  Judaism.  There 
was  an  immediate  advantage  in  the  conversion.  This 
was  the  avoidance  of  persecution.  If  the  Jewish  Chris- 
tian could  induce  the  Gentile  proselyte  to  submit  to 
the  covenant,  the  hostility  of  the  unconverted  Jew 
would  be  disarmed.  This,  as  we  know,  was  the  opinion 
of  the  apostolic  college  at  Jerusalem,  who  persuaded 
Panl  to  go  through  certain  marked  observances  on  the 
occasion  of  his  last  visit  to  Jerusalem.  In  the  eyes  of 
the  great  missionary  they  were  of  no  importance.  It 
was  his  habit  to  gain  men's  hearts,  or  to  disabuse  their 
suspicions.  If  his  concession  involved  no  sacrifice  of 
principle,  he  was  ready  to  conciliate  Jew  and  Greek  in 
non-essentials. 

Had  the  Christian  converts  allowed  themselves  to 
submit,  it  is  not  difiicult  to  see  the  consequences.  The 
Jews  would  have  had,  could  have  had,  no  permanent 
difficulty  in  allowing  the  prophetic  mission  of  Christ, 
and  in  permitting  the  formation  of  a  sect  which  should 
see  in  Him  the  greatest  of  the  ]3rophets,  the  Son  of 
God.  Could  they  only  have  secured  the  perpetual 
supremacy  of  the  Mosaic  ordinances,  they  would  have 
willingly  acquiesced  in  the  formation  of  a  school  which 
4 


T4  PAUL   OF  TARSUS. 

should  accej^t,  afiii-m,  propagate  the  tenets  of  the 
Nazarene  prophet.  They  would  not  have  been  greatly 
offended  had  this  school  anathematized  its  rivals,  or 
extinguished  them,  any  more  than  the  head  of  Roman 
unity  was  alarmed  at  the  feud  between  the  Dominicans 
and  Franciscans,  or  at  that  between  the  Minorite  friars 
and  the  endowed  orders.  Unanimity  was  not,  is  not, 
to  be  expected  in  the  spu-itual  any  more  than  in  the 
material  life,  but  uniformity  may  be  demanded  and 
must  be  insisted  on.  The  question  was :  Shall  Chris- 
tianity be  lost  in  Judaism,  or  shall  it  assert  its  suprem- 
acy over  the  older  covenant,  by  boldly  claiming  to  be 
the  successor  of  a  defunct  organization  ? 

Familiaiity  with  Jewish  observances  endeared  them 
to  the  Jewish  converts.  But  the  acceptance  of  a  pecul- 
iar and  ineffaceable  sign,  the  fact  of  which  became 
especially  notorious  to  the  habits  of  ancient  civiliza- 
tion, the  obedience  to  a  number  of  exact  precautions 
against  ceremonial  defilement,  which  compelled  the 
Jews  to  live  apart  fi-om  the  nations  with  whom  they 
sojourned,  were  conditions  of  church  membership  which 
were  intolerably  distasteful  to  the  Gentiles.  They  were 
told  that  Christianity  was  a  law  of  liberty,  —  a  i-eligion, 
the  acceptance  of  which,  forthwith,  worked  an  instant 
purification  fi'om  any  taint  which  adhered  to  human 
nature,  was  a  salvation  by  Grace  ;  and  they  were  invited, 
nay,  constrained  by  the  threat  of  perdition,  to  submit 
to  these  strange  rites.  There  were  portions  of  the 
Jewish  law  which  they  could  willingly  adopt.  "  The 
habit,"  says  Josephus,  in  his  Apology  for   his  nation 


CONTROVERSY  ABOUT  RITES.  75 

jigainst  the  malignant  calumnies  of  Apion,  "  of  imitat- 
ing many  among  the  rites  of  Jewish  worship  is  general. 
There  is  no  city  of  Greeks  or  barbarians  —  no  race  of 
mankind  —  which  is  unfamiliar  with  the  custom  of  keep- 
ing the  Sabbath,  of  resting  on  that  sacred  day.  There 
is  none  where  certain  of  our  rites  are  not  observed  — 
as  fistings,  the  burning  of  lamps,  and  the  avoidance  of 
much  that  our  law  forbids.  They  affect,"  he  adds,  "  to 
imitate  our  concord  and  liberality,  our  industry  in  the 
arts,  our  heroic  resolution  to  die  rather  than  abandon 
our  law."  The  Jews  did  not  establish  an  active  propa- 
ganda, at  least  in  the  capital.  They  knew  the  danger 
of  attracting  noble  converts.  In  the  nineteenth  year 
of  our  era,  the  conversion  of  Fulvia,  wife  of  Saturninus, 
to  Judaism,  —  by  the  endeavors  of  some  enthusiast,  who 
persuaded  his  neophyte  to  send  a  great  present  to 
Jerusalem  under  the  name  of  first-fruits,  and  who  was 
charged  with  the  intention  of  appropriating  the  offer- 
ing to  his  own  use,  —  provoked  a  dangerous  reaction 
from  the  toleration,  and  even  favor  with  which  Augus- 
tus had  treated  the  nation.  Four  thousand  of  these 
Jews,  say  Josephus  and  Tacitus,  were  transported  to 
Sardinia.  The  latter  adds,  that  if  the  unwholesomeness 
of  the  island  was  fatal  to  them,  it  would  be  a  cheap 
loss.  Adherence  to  the  tenets  of  Judaism,  therefore, 
on  the  part  of  such  converts  as  were  of  Gentile  origin, 
though  it  might  check  the  hostility  of  the  synagogue 
and  the  Sanhedrim,  would  provoke  the  animosity  of 
the  praetorium  and  the  senate.  The  yoke  was  intoler- 
able, the  obligation  superfluous,  the  maintenance  of  the 
ritual  obstructive  and  dangerous. 


76  PAUL   OF  TARSUS. 

The  most  superficial  study  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apos- 
tles teaches  us  that  this  controversy  was  the  earliest 
and  the  latest  of  which  that  narrative  takes  cognizance. 
The  struggle  commences  with  the  mission  of  Peter  to 
Cornelius,  •  and  the  suspicion  with  which  the  chief 
apostle  is  treated  —  a  suspicion  which  is  disarmed  only 
by  the  authority  of  a  special  revelation,  and  of  a  mira- 
cle, and  by  the  testimony  of  the  brethren  who  accom- 
panied Peter  in  his  journey  from  Joppa  to  Caesarea. 
How  it  harassed  the  life  of  Paul  is  well  known.  It  was 
the  subject  of  long  and  anxious  debate  before  the 
apostolic  college.  It  led  to  the  arrest  and  imjDrison- 
ment  of  Paul.  Even  when  he  came  a  prisoner  to 
Kome,  he  instantly  anticij^ates  that  this  unsettled 
question  will  follow  him  thither.  He  finds  the  Jewish 
residents  ignorant  of  any  specific  charge  against  him,  — 
perhaps  because  the  bitterness  with  which  he  was 
assailed  had  been  assuaged  by  his  captivity.  The  men 
of  Judea  send  no  complaint^  But  elsewhere,  every- 
where, his  preaching  is  spoken  against.  Almost  the  last 
fact  in  this  historic  book  of  the  New  Testament  is  the 
declaration  that  the  salvation  of  God  is  sent  to  the 
Gentiles,  and  that  they  are  to  hear  it. 

The  attitude  which  Paul  took  in  this  question  is,  at 
first  sight,  ambiguous.  It  appears,  though  the  language 
used  is  not  perfectly  clear,  that  the  Apostle  gave  way 
in  the  case  of  Titus,  not  from  compulsion,  but  for  the 
sake  of  peace.  It  is  known  that  he  spontaneously  put 
this  discipline  on  Timothy.  It  may  be  that  when  he 
sought,  in  the  case  of  any  among  his  disciples  whom  he 


PAUL'S   CONCESSIONS   TO  JEWS.  77 

wished  to  employ  as  missionaries,  the  authority  or 
license  of  the  apostolic  synod,  he  conceded  the  point. 
It  was  his  avowed  principle  to  conciliate  men  by  a  con- 
cession in  non-essentials.  Christianity  was  a  new  crea- 
tion —  the  ceremonial  characteristics,  the  observances 
of  Judaism,  were  nugatory,  antiquated,  superfluous. 
Only,  if  some  of  the  brethren  still  cherished  them,  he 
could  not  fight  for  trifles.  To  resist  would  stir  up 
bitterness,  and  might  prolong  the  existence  of  a  senti- 
ment which  time  would  weaken,  and  finally  extinguish. 

But  the  case  was  very  difi^erent  when  an  attempt  was 
made  to  exalt  this  sentiment  into  a  rule  of  Christian 
life,  as  a  condition  precedent  to  salvation.  The  emis- 
saries of  the  narrower  school  had  intruded  on  his 
special  province,  had  raised  the  cry  of  Jesus,  not  Paul, 
in  the  place  where  Paul  had  labored,  had  taught 
another  gospel,  had  questioned  the  authority  of  the 
Apostle's  mission,  had  insinuated  doubts  of  his  ortho- 
doxy. Nor  had  this  attemjDt  been  unsuccessflil.  It 
had  produced  dissensions  in  Corinth.  It  had  thor- 
oughly disorganized  the  Galatians, .  a  people  of  Euro- 
pean origin,  but  who  had  been  settled  in  the  interior  of 
Asia  Minor  for  three  centuries.  This  nation  had  once 
been  the  scourge  of  Asia,  but  had  latterly  become 
peaceful.  Up  to  the  fifth  century  after  Christ,  the 
country  folk  of  Galatia  still  spoke  with  the  Celtic 
tongue  of  their  forefathers.  The  people  in  the  towns 
knew  Greek,  but  were  probably  bilingual. 

These  Asiatic  Celts  possessed  the  peculiarities  of 
their  race.     They  had  strong  rehgious  feelings,  and 


78  PAUL    OF   TABS  US. 

high  conceptions  of  moral  purity,  great  quickness  of 
apprehension,  keen  affections,  loyal  natures.  The 
higher  qualities  of  the  Galatian  race  are  illustrated  by 
the  story  of  Chiomara,  mth  whom  Polybius  had  con- 
versed. She  had  been  taken  captive  by  a  Roman,  and 
had  been  made  to  endure  the  last  insult  by  her  captor. 
She  was  ransomed,  but  contrived,  like  Judith,  to  bring 
back  to  her  husband  the  head  of  her  ravisher,  in  proof 
of  her  conjugal  fidelity  and  courage,  of  her  unj^olluted 
and  heroic  chastity. 

But,  as  these  Galatians  readily  gave  in  to  one  set  of 
religious  impressions,  so  they  as  readily  permitted  their 
first  impressions  to  be  supplanted  by  others.  They 
accepted  the  Apostle's  teaching  with  warmth,  as  he 
preached  to  them  during  his  intervals  of  sickness. 
And  now,  wath  the  fickleness  of  tender  and  religious 
natures,  they  were  terrified  by  the  denunciations  of 
these  teachers  of  the  narrow  school,  and  were  almost 
disposed  to  submit  themselves  to  the  despotism  of  the 
Law.  They  had  given  way  in  some  points,  had  already 
consented  to  observe  the  ceremonial  seasons  of  the 
Jewish  calendar,  were  on  the  brink  of  sacrificing  them- 
selves irrevocably  to  the  claims  of  the  Jewish  covenant. 

To  this  emergency  the  Apostle  addresses  himself 
without  hesitation.  It  is  the  occasion  for  a  supreme 
effort.  Unless  he  succeeds  in  crushing  this  apostasy, 
his  mission  is  annihilated,  his  labors  are  vain,  his  gos- 
pel is  repudiated.  So  he  wrote  to  the  Galatians  a 
letter  which  has  had  a  more  powerful  effect  on  the 
religious  history  of  mankind  than  any  other  composi- 


PAUL   AND    THE   0ALAT1AN8.  79 

tion  which  was  ever  penned,  any  other  words  which 
were  ever  spoken.  It  severed,  conclusively,  though  not 
at  once,  Christianity  from  Judaism  ;  it  declared  the  old 
revelation  imperfect  and  transitory.  It  even  pointed  to 
a  covenant  older  than  that  of  Moses,  older  than  any 
rite  by  which  God  had  distinguished  the  objects  of  His 
promise.  This  manifesto  was  a  final  and  deliberate 
schism,  an  act  as  defiant  as  the  Confession  of  Augs- 
burg, and  vastly  more  complete.  At  this  distance  of 
time,  when  the  din  of  the  first  theological  fight  has 
long  since  been  hushed,  it  is  not  easy  to  estimate  the 
extraordinary  boldness  of  this  sally.  Though  wi'itten 
to  the  Galatians,  it  was  probably  pubHshed  and  dissemi- 
nated with  great  rapidity  through  the  various  Chris- 
tian communities.  St.  Peter,  or  whoever  else  was  the 
author  of  the  second  epistle  which  goes  under  his  name, 
might  well  say  that  there  were  things  hard  to  be  under- 
stood in  his  fellow-apostle's  writings.  The  hardest 
thing  of  all,  however,  was  to  find  an  answer  to  the 
question  which  was  put  over  and  over  again  by  the 
contemporaries  of  the  Apostle,  —  How  can  a  man  who 
is  a  Jew,  who  is  trained  in  the  Law,  who  has  profited 
much,  as  he  says,  in  the  religion  of  his  fathers,  utterly 
reject  the  authority  of  Moses,  repudiate  the  code  in 
which  every  Israelite  glories,  believe  in  Jesus,  live 
for  Him  and  be  ready  to  suffer  and  die  for  Him,  and 
escape  from  the  fatal  doctrine  that  a  new  religion  can 
supersede  or  render  superfluous  the  foundation  on 
which  that  religion  is  built?  It  is  probable  that  the 
persons  alluded  to  in  the  last  chapter  of  the  Epistle  to 


80  PAUL   OF  TABS  US. 

the  Romans  were  carrying  on,  in  the  church  which 
Paul  had  not,  indeed,  founded,  but  which  apparently 
owed  its  origin  to  Aquila,  the  same  interested  hostility 
to  that  liberal  teaching  w^hich  characterized  the  Pauhne 
gospel.  The  "  Romans  "  must  have  contained  a  strong 
Jewish  element,  else  it  is  unintelligible  that  the  Apos- 
tle should  have,  in  this  particular  epistle,  argued  so 
copiously  from  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures,  —  more 
than  half  his  quotations  being  found  in  this  single 
letter.  But,  it  is  also  plain,  from  the  recital  of  heathen 
practice  and  fi-om  the  reflections  made  on  heathen 
morals,  that  the  Church  of  Rome  contained,  at  the  date 
of  this  epistle,  a  strong  admixture  of  Gentile  converts ; 
and,  it  is  further  plain,  that  the  opinion  boldly  avowed 
in  the  Epistle  to  the  Galatians,  to  the  effect  that 
Mosaism  is  superseded  by  Christianity,  is  strongly 
before  the  writer  of  the  letter  to  the  Romans. 

"  I  give  you  my  advice,"  he  says,  "  to  take  note  of 
these  men  who  are  making  divisions  and  stumbling- 
blocks,  in  contravention  of  the  instruction  in  which 
you  have  been  trained.  Keep  out  of  their  way. 
Those  people  are  no  servants  to  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
but  to  their  own  belly,  and  it  is  by  their  fail*  speeches 
and  plausibility  that  they  deceive  the  hearts  of  the  un- 
suspicious." The  teachers  of  a  narrow  theology  were 
fomenting  differences  under  the  pretext  of  a  spurious 
uniformity. 

It  is  almost  unnecessary  to  say  that  the  Pauline 
Ethics  are  as  stern  and  strict  as  those  of  any  moral 
system  which  has  ever  been  promulgated.     The  liberty 


PAUL'S  ISOLATION.  81 

on  which  he  insisted  was  no  cover,  no  apology,  no  de- 
fence for  license,  for  those  wild  and  profligate  excesses 
which  the  fanatic's  faith  has  sometimes  permitted. 
The  extravagances  of  the  Adamites,  of  the  Cathari, 
of  the  Anabaptists,  have  been  quoted  as  a  reproach  on 
the  genius  of  Christianity.  In  reality  they  are  homage 
to  it.  The  claim  of  Christianity  on  the  allegiance  of 
men  has  been  so  strong,  that  they  who  have  repu- 
diated its  spirit  have  afiected  to  call  themselves  by  its 
name.  The  Israelites  often  fell  into  that  idolatry 
which  the  Law  denounced,  chastised,  condemned. 
But  there  is  no  reason  to  think  that  they  forgot  their 
nationality  in  their  offence. 

The  victory  which  Paul  foreshadowed  was  not 
achieved  in  his  life-time.  In  the  latest  of  his  epistles, 
—  if  the  second  to  Timothy  is  from  his  hand,  and  no 
sufficient  objection  has,  it  would  seem,  been  alleged 
against  its  authenticity,  —  his  mind  is  still  full  of  An- 
tioch,  Iconium,  Lystra,  and  of  the  perils  which  he 
endured  in  these  places.  All  those  who  were  in  Asia 
were  alienated  from  him,  even  the  converts  whom  he 
had  made,  for  whom  he  had  labored,  for  whose  sake 
he  was  in  prison  at  Rome.  Knaves  and  charlatans,  as 
he  asserts,  —  the  grievous  wolves  whose  mischievous 
activity  he  predicted  so  sadly  at  Miletus,  —  were  doing 
their  worst  on  the  Christian  flock,  urging  them  to  quit 
that  Hberty  to  which  he  had  called  them,  and  to  adopt 
those  ascetic  fancies  which  would  again  bind  them 
to  Jewish  practices. 

It  has  been  suggested  that  the  epistles  ascribed  to 

4*  F 


82  PAUL   OF  TARSUS. 

James  and  Jude  are  attacks  on  the  Pauline  theology ; 
that  in  the  Apocalypse  the  allusions  to  the  Nicolai- 
tanes,  in  the  message  to  the  churches  of  Ephesus  and 
Pergamos ;  the  condemnation  of  those  Avho  say  they 
are  Jews  and  are  not,  in  the  churches  of  Ephesus  and 
Philadelphia,  and  who  are  branded  with  the  name  of 
the  synagogue  of  Satan,  —  are  re23roaches  cast  on  the 
followers  of  the  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles.  The  same 
criticism  discovers  in  the  prophetess  whom  the  writer 
calls  Jezebel,  and  who  is  expressly  said  to  have  se- 
duced Christians  to  idolatry,  and  induced  them  to  eat 
things  offered  to  idols,  one  of  those  female  teachers 
who,  like  Lydia,  Priscilla  and  many  others,  accepted 
and  furthered  the  gospel  of  the  Apostle.  They  w^ho 
cannot  or  will  not  accept  this  interpretation  may  yet 
discern  in  these  vehement  denunciations  that  the 
writer  of  the  Apocalypse  detected  laxity  of  life  and 
doctrine  in  churches  whose  characteristic  practices 
had  become  a  monstrous  caricature  of  the  freedom 
which  Paul  claimed  for  his  converts. 

Thus  much  at  least  is  plain.  The  influence  of  the 
ascetic  party  was  so  strong,  that  although  the  destruc- 
tion of  Jerusalem  loosened  the  grasp  of  Judaism  on 
the  Church,  the  tenets  of  the  Egyptian  Therapeutae, 
and  of  the  Syrian  Essenes,  offshoots  of  Judaism,  —  or 
more  probably  of  that  Buddhism  which,  as  we  learn 
from  the  Mahawanso,  and  the  inscriptions  which  Cun- 
ningham has  interpreted,  was  preached  extensively  in 
Western  Asia,  and  Northern  Africa,  in  the  third  cen- 
tury before  Christ,  —  encouraged  that  gloomy  auster- 


THE  EPISTLE   TO   THE  HEBREWS,  83 

ity  which  was  so  characteristic  of  early  Christianity, 
especially  in  its  Southern  and  Eastern  home.  Of  this 
temper  Justin  Martyr  and  Tertullian  are  types.  It 
was  in  the  western  world  that  the  genius  of  Paul  was 
acknowledged  and  his  gospel  was  adopted,  for  the 
western  Church  detected  the  polemical  value  of  the 
Pauline  writings  when  it  began  its  struggle  with 
the  Gnostics. 

There  is  an  epistle  addressed,  it  is  said,  to  the  He- 
brews, which  popularly,  goes  under  the  name  of  Paul. 
No  one,  however,  who  is  possessed  of  the  critical 
faculty  in  its  most  rudimentary  degi'ee,  can  foil  to  rec- 
ognize that  the  writing  is  none  of  his.  The  style  of 
this  pastoral  is  that  of  grave,  easy  argumentation,  and 
differs  totally  from  the  abrupt,  involved,  and  hyper- 
bolic manner  which  characterizes  the  Pauline  com- 
positions. The  language  used  is  almost  another 
dialect  from  that  which  the  Apostle  employed.  The 
matter  is  an  ingenious  analogy  between  the  ceremonial 
of  the  Jewish  law,  and  the  office  of  Christ  as  the  Great 
Sacrifice.  It  might  have  been  written  by  an  Alex- 
andrian Jew,  who  allegorized  in  a  Christian  spirit ;  by 
a  converted  Philo.  The  weight  of  tradition  assigns 
its  authorship  to  Apollos.  Even  in  an  early  and  un- 
critical age,  it  was  seen  that  it  did  not  proceed  from 
Paul. 

The  epistle  was  probably  wi'itten  after  the  Apostle's 
death.  The  writer  informs  his  readers  that  Timothy  is 
set  at  liberty,  and  that  they  purpose  in  a  short  time  to 
visit  those  to   whom  the  letter  was  addressed.     No 


84  PAUL   OF   TARSUS. 

name  but  that  of  Timothy  is  found  in  the  letter.  The 
sahitation  from  those  of  Italy  seems  to  indicate  that  it 
was  written  from  some  town  in  that  part  of  the  Roman 
empire.  But  the  writer  gives  no  clew  to  his  personality. 
It  is  likely  that  Timothy  had  obeyed  the  summons  of 
Paul,  and  had  shared  his  imprisonment,  but  that  he 
had  been  liberated  during  the  period  which  followed 
on  the  death  of  Nero,  an  occurrence  which  took  place 
about  a  month  after  the  reputed  date  of  the  Apostle's 
martyi'dom.  It  may  be  added  that  the  epistle  contains 
fuller  indications  of  a  system  of  church  government  than 
any  of  the  Pauline  letters  do,  the  teachers  being  twice 
bidden  in  the  last  chapter  to  remember  and  obey  those 
who  have  the  rule  over  them,  an  expression  which 
easily  squares  with  the  government  of  the  Church  at 
Jerusalem,  and  of  those  which  were  founded  on  its 
model.  But  again,  it  would  seem  to  be  written  before 
the  investment  and  capture  of  Jerusalem,  for  it  can 
hardly  be  conceived  that  any  letter  would  be  composed 
during  that  crisis  of  the  nation's  agony,  and  be  wholly 
silent  on  so  terrible  a  subject. 

No  better  defence  could  be  found  for  the  Jewish 
ordinal  than  the  successful  proof  that  it  was  a  symbol- 
ical and  prophetic  ceremonial;  and  with  those  who 
held  that  the  substance  was  given  at  last  in  Christ,  no 
better  method  could  be  found  for  concluding  that  the 
necessity  of  the  shadow  was  past.  The  excuse  for  a 
ritual  consists  in  the  position  that  the  ceremony  or  rite 
presents  a  distant  fact,  or  a  transcendental  force  under 
the  economy  of  some  visible  or  sensible  sign.    Before 


SYMBOLS  AND   SHADOWS.  85 

the  mind  of  the  writer  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews, 
the  priesthood  and  the  sacrifice,  the  censer  and  the 
ark,  the  cherubim  and  the  sanctuary,  were  the  parts  of  a 
grand  historical  procession,  the  continuity  of  which  was 
intended  to  be  a  perj^etual  reminder  of  some  final  con- 
summation in  which  these  appointed  symbols  and 
shadows  would  be  fulfilled  and  absorbed.  Far  away 
in  the  dim  antiquity,  was  remembered  the  majestic 
figure  of  the  king  of  Salem,  to  whom  Abraham,  the 
father  of  the  faithful,  the  conqueror  of  the  four  kings  of 
Canaan,  did  homage  and  gave  tithes,  the  king  of  peace, 
the  king  of  righteousness,  who,  in  those  primeval  times, 
united  the  functions  of  priest  and  monarch.  This  great 
memory  was  powerfully  impressed  on  the  mind  of  the 
Psalmist,  who  contemplates  an  eternal  priesthood  after 
the  similitude  of  Melchisedek,  the  mysterious  hierarch 
of  whom  no  father  or  mother  is  recorded,  no  genealogy 
given,  who  appears  in  the  midst  of  an  idolatrous  and 
licentious  people,  and  disappears  after  he  has  blessed 
the  great  patriarch.  Who  can  this  be,  implies  the 
writer  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  unless  some  heav- 
enly visitant,  like  them  who  conversed  with  Abraham 
at  the  door  of  the  tent  of  Mamre,  him  who  wrestled  with 
Israel,  and  whose  name  was  sacred,  him  who  appeared 
with  a  drawn  sword  by  the  wall  of  Jericho  as  captain 
of  the  Lord's  host ;  who,  in  short,  but  the  eternal  Son 
of  God  ?  Here  is  the  perfect,  the  perpetual  priest,  who 
has  not  only  entered  into  the  holiest  place  before  the 
vision  of  God,  but  has  invited  those  who  believe  on  Him 
to  behold  the  same  glory. 


86  PAUL  OF  TARSUS. 

And  then,  to  show  that  an  unchanging  purpose 
shapes  the  counsel  of  God  throughout,  the  writer  of  this 
epistle  enumerates  the  victories  of  faith  under  the  older 
covenants,  from  the  days  of  Abel  to  that  army  of  wit- 
nesses whose  exploits  and  endurance  are  told  in  so 
fervid  a  strain  of  passionate  eloquence,  as  the  memory 
of  those  ancient  heroes  passed  before  the  mind  of  the 
enraptured  allegorist.  Nothing  is  more  consummate 
than  the  art  of  this  passage ;  for,  while  it  keeps  present 
the  flict  that  the  coming  of  Christ  is  the  abrogation  of 
the  imperfect  symbol,  it  consoles  the  Jewish  believer 
with  the  glories  of  his  race,  and  suggests  greater 
triumphs,  under  the  reign  of  the  King  and  Priest  whose 
throne  endures  for  ever  in  heaven. 

The  law  of  Christ  and  the  law  of  Moses  are  one,  only 
the  former  is  more  exact  and  absorbing  than  the  latter. 
To  do  despite  to  the  former  is  a  caj^ital  offence;  to 
scorn  the  latter,  and  its  great  sanctions,  is  to  invite  an 
angrier  judgment  —  a  speedier  wrath.  To  apostatize 
from  this  more  j^erfect  law,  is  to  repudiate  the  place  of 
repentance  —  to  sin  like  Esau  —  to  fall  into  the  hands 
of  the  living  God  —  to  draw  back  unto  perdition  —  to 
provoke  a  consuming  fire.  But  to  them  that  believe, 
Sinai  has  lost  its  terrors;  and  in  place  of  the  mountain 
from  which  the  law  proceeded,  there  is  the  pleasant 
prospect  of  the  divine  Zion  —  the  city  of  God  —  the 
Jerusalem  of  heaven,  as  the  prophet  Ezekiel  foresaw  it 
in  vision  —  the  Sabaoth  of  angels  —  the  Church  of 
the  eternal  First-born,  of  the  Divine  Judge,  of  the  per- 
fected spirits  of  the  just. 


CHAPTER  III. 

A  S  races  have  come  to  nought,  have  been  rumed  or 
-^^^  destroyed,  —  as  regions,  which  were  once  the 
gardens  of  the  earth,  have  become  deserts,  —  so  theol- 
ogies have  become  extinct.  Three  of  the  most  notable 
among  these  forms,  whose  antiquity  is  extremely  re- 
mote, and  which  existed  when  Christianity  began  its 
career,  still  survive.  These  are  the  creed  of  the  Jews, 
that  of  Brahmanism,  and  that  of  Buddhism.  The  last, 
which  is,  nominally  at  least,  the  most  widely  embraced 
of  all  faiths,  is  said  to  be  nearly  six  centuries  older  than 
our  era. 

Again,  some  religion,  systems  have  utterly  perished. 
'No  trace  survives  of  tht  theosoj)hy  and  ceremonial  of 
Greece,  Rome,  Egypt,  Phoenicia.  Zeus,  Jupiter,  Apollo, 
Phoebus,  Athene,  Minerva,  —  the  myriad  divinities  of  the 
Greek  and  Roman  Olympus,  —  are  as  extinct  as  the  most 
remote  geological  fauna.  So  with  Isis  and  Osiris,  Anu- 
bis  and  Thoth,  and  the  infinite  series  of  Egyptian 
gods.  The  Theogony  of  Phoenicia,  —  Dagon,  Ashta- 
roth,  Baal,  have  become  mere  names,  the  memorials  of 
which  have  perished  with  them. 

Some  have  survived,  but  are  wasted  into  extreme 
feebleness.     The  ancient  relic-ion  of  Zoroaster  is  said 


88  PAUL    OF   TARSUS. 

to  exist  in  the  Parsee  colony  of  Bombay,  among  the 
scanty  and  expatriated  relics  of  a  race  which  was  for- 
merly great  and  victorious.  The  Druses  and  Yesidis 
are  the  representatives  of  some  ancient  Gnostic  relig- 
ion, once  probably  as  wide-spread  as  any  of  the 
Eastern  beliefs.  The  few  Israelite  sectaries  who  still 
Unger  at  Nablous  are  the  remains  of  that  Samaritan 
schism  which  began  with  the  revolt  of  Jeroboam,  was 
embittered  by  the  rivalry  of  Tobiah  and  Sanballat  on 
the  one  hand,  Nehemiah  and  Ezra  on  the  other,  and 
which  was  strong  enough  in  the  time  of  Christ  to  be 
intensely  detested  by  the  Jewish  national  party.  But 
all  these  religions  are  crumbling  away,  and  perhaps  in 
a  few  generations  each  will  become  historical. 

It  has  been  stated  more  than  once  in  these  pages 
that  the  Christian  religion  was  nearly  absorbed  by 
Judaism  at  the  beginning  of  its  career,  and  that  on 
grounds  of  human  probabiHty  it  was  about  to  become 
an  obscure  Jewish  sect,  when  it  was  rescued  by  the 
vigor  and  independence  of  the  great  missionary- 
apostle.  Paul  saved  it  from  this  catastrophe,  by  the 
peremptory  manner  in  which  he  insisted  on  the  abroga- 
tion of  the  Jewish  code,  as  far  as  Gentile  converts 
were  concerned ;  and  Paul  was  ultimately  successful  in 
the  bold  course  which  he  adopted.  But  the  effort  was 
a  supreme  struggle.  It  cost  the  Apostle  a  life-long 
martyrdom,  and  for  a  time  discredited  his  labors  and 
his  success.  The  attempt  to  supersede  the  Jewish  rit- 
ual excited  the  warmest  hostility.  The  success  of  the 
attempt  thrust  the  Church  into  a  new  danger.     Paul 


THE   GNOSTICS.  89 

saved  it  from  being  stifled.  He  lived,  it  appears,  to 
see  it  exposed  to  the  attacks  of  a  more  ubiquitous  and 
more  versatile  enemy.  In  the  East,  at  least,  it  was 
nearly  supplanted  by  Gnosticism.  It  was  threatened 
and  even  imperilled  by  the  equivalent  of  Gnosticism  in 
the  West. 

For  a  century  and  a  half  the  Church  struggled  for 
existence  against  the  numerous  and  frequently  hostile 
sectaries  who  were  known  under  the  general  name 
of  Gnostics,  and  who,  as  will  be  seen,  held  certain  ten- 
ets in  common.  By  far  the  largest  part  of  that  con- 
troversial theology  which  has  descended  from  the 
earliest  Christian  times  to  our  own  is  occupied  with 
the  statement  and  refutation  of  these  Gnostic  reveries. 
The  existence  of  such  opinions  is  alluded  to  by  Justin 
Martyr.  The  work  of  Irenseus  consists  almost  entirely 
of  statements  purporting  to  give  an  account  of  the 
tenets  entertained  by  the  various  heresiarchs  of  the 
Gnostic  theogonies.  The  lately  discovered  work  of 
Hippolytus,  bishop  of  Ostia,  is,  for  the  most  part,  a 
treatise  on  Gnostic  opinions.  The  greater  part  of  Ter- 
tullian's  works  are  controversial,  and  deal  with  the 
same  tenets.  During  the  days  when  Christianity  was 
in  its  infancy,  men  did  not  construct  creeds,  or  elabo- 
rate definitions  on  the  nature  of  Christ,  and  on  the 
work  of  redemption ;  but  either  accepted  the  simple 
faith  of  the  apostolic  teaching,  or  exhibited  a  prodigious 
theogony,  which  they  collected  from  all  sources,  and 
arranged  into  the  most  fantastic  systems.  Never  did 
the  religious  imagination  run  wilder  riot.     At  the  same 


90  ■  PAUL    OF  TARSUS. 

time,  it  is  not  impossible  to  trace  those  theories  to  a 
few  simple  princij^les.  These  principles  were  recog- 
nized in  and  before  the  age  of  St.  Paul. 

In  eastern  Iran,  and  in  that  part  of  it  which  the 
ancients  knew  as  Bactria,  there  lived,  at  a  time  which 
it  is  now  impossible  to  fix  with  any  degree  of  certainty, 
a  certain  Zoroaster.  Some  facts  about  the  life  of  this 
personage,  and  an  exposition  of  the  doctrine  which  he 
taught,  are  contained  in  the  Zendavesta  —  a  scripture 
written  in  an  ancient  Aryan  dialect.  Zoroaster  is  the 
reputed  founder  of  the  Mngian  religion.  The  charac- 
teristic of  this  creed  is  dualism  —  i.  e..  the  existence  of 
two  powers,  principles,  beings,  of  co-ordinate  and  nearly 
equal  authority  —  one  of  whom  is  Good,  the  other 
Evil ;  one  the  author  of  every  blessing  which  lightens 
the  lot  of  humanity,  the  other  of  all  and  every  misery 
which  depresses  and  degrades  it.  These  two  powers 
are  in  constant  rivalry;  and  although  the  beneficent 
spirit  will  and  must  finally  vanquish  his  enemy,  and 
the  enemy  of  the  human  race,  the  struggle  is  long, 
arduous,  and  as  yet  far  from  its  completion.  The  name 
of  the  Good  Being  is  Ormuzd,  that  of  the  evil  Ahriman. 
Lately  deciphered  inscriptions  prove  that  the  system 
of  Zoroaster  was  the  state  religion  of  the  Persian  peo- 
ple. To  Darius,  for  example,  Ormuzd  is  the  author 
of  all  prosperity,  victory,  blessing,  and  is  reverenced 
accordingly.  Both  Ormuzd  and  Ahriman  were  ema^- 
nations  from  Primeval  Light.  But  Ormuzd  was  the 
elder,  and  Ahriman  was  ambitious,  proud,  and  jealous 
of  the  first-born.     These  faults  are  an  impersonation 


THE   PARSI  RELIGION.  91 

of  the  vices  and  the  vindictiveness  of  those  who,  in  an 
Eastern  dynasty,  are  near  of  kin  to  the  ruler,  but  are 
subjects  to  him,  and  are  thereupon  suspicious  and  sus- 
pected. Such  persons  were  Smerdis  to  Cambyses, 
Cyrus  the  younger  to  Artaxerxes. 

The  principles  of  the  Zoroastrian  or  Magian  religion 
are  to  be  found  in  the  Scriptures  of  the  Parsees,  who 
are  reputed  to  be  the  surviving  worshippers  of  the  an- 
cient Persian  Deity.  If  we  can  trust  slight  hints  given 
in  those  relics  of  a  faith  which  was  once  accepted  by  the 
highest  civilization  of  Central  Asia,  the  oldest  parts  of 
the  Zendavesta  point  to  the  existence  of  pastoral  habits 
among  the  people  to  whom  Zoroaster  was  the  prophet. 
The  greater  part  of  the  Zend  scriptures  treat  of  ceremo- 
nial defilement  and  purification,  and  are  even  more 
minute  in  the  rules  which  they  lay  down  for  the  atone- 
ment of  voluntary  and  involuntary  ofiences  than  the 
Mosaic  ritual  is.  It  is  possible,  however,  that  many  of 
these  regulations  have  been  interpolated.  That  the 
religion  suffered  by  the  conquest  of  Alexander  cannot 
be  doubted.  It  is  said  to  have  declined  during  the 
Parthian  occupation  of  Iran,  and  to  have  been  restored 
by  Ardshir  in  the  third  century  of  our  era.  This  mon- 
arch, the  first  king  of  the  Sassanid  dynasty,  did  for  the 
Scriptures  of  the  Zoroastrians  what  Peisistratus  did  for 
the  Homeric  poems :  he  collected  them  from  the  mem- 
ories of  those  who  treasured  them  into  the  volume 
which  we  know  by  the  name  of  the  Zendavesta.  When 
the  Persian  empire  was  overrun  by  the  followers  of 
Mohammed  in  the  seventh  century,  a  few  of  the  adhe- 


92  PAUL   OF  TARSUS. 

rents  of  Parsism  escaped  to  India,  and  obtained  permis- 
sion, under  certain  conditions,  to  settle  near  tlie  mouth 
of  the  Indus. 

The  creed  of  the  Persians  was  that  of  a  dual  mon- 
archy. But  the  good  king  was  surrounded  by  a  hie- 
rarchy of  powers  whom  he  had  created.  Chief  among 
these  were  six  amshaspands,  then  twenty-eight  other 
powers,  one  of  whom  was  Mithra,  and  then  an  infinite 
order  of  pure  spirits,  all  of  whom  were  superior  to  man. 
On  the  other  hand,  Ahriman,  the  e\il  power,  created  an 
infinite  number  of  dewas,  who  are  presided  over  by  six 
evil  dynasts.  Ormuzd  is  the  creator  of  the  world  —  a 
work  which  he  efiected  in  six  periods  of  time.  In  this 
new  world,  Ormuzd  placed  a  man  and  woman,  who  are 
corrupted  by  the  wiles  of  Ahriman.  But,  when  the 
earth  is  most  depraved  and  afilicted,  Ormuzd  will  send 
his  prophets,  the  chief  of  whom  will  regenerate  creation 
and  bring  it  back  to  its  pristine  beauty,  power  and 
purity.  Thereafter  will  ensue  a  universal  resurrection, 
and  the  chief  prophet  will  judge  both  good  and  bad. 
Then  those  who  are  found  pure  will  hve  in  eternal 
felicity.  And,  on  the  other  hand,  Ahriman,  his  demons, 
and  the  wicked  will  be  also  purified,  but  by  a  torrent 
of  molten  metal.  In  the  end,  the  reign  of' Ormuzd  will 
commence  its  uninterrupted  course,  humanity  will  be 
perpetually  happy,  and  all  will  be  engaged  in  singing 
the  praises  of  the  Supreme  Being,  the  Ancient  of  Days, 
the  King  of  Light. 

In  this  life,  man  is  always  exjDOsed  to  the  machina- 
tions of  the  dewas  and  their   chief      They  who   fall 


AHRIMAN  AND  SATAN.  93 

into  sin  become  the  habitations  of  evil  spirits,  and  are 
finally  transformed  so  as  to  be  identical  with  the  de- 
mons with  whom  they  have  consorted.  But  the  door 
is  never  closed  to  repentance  and  faith,  however  great 
has  been  the  sin,  even  though  its  ceremonial  lustra- 
tion is  impossible.  Furthermol-e,  to  know  the  names 
of  Ormuzd  is  a  power,  a  talisman,  with  which  to  chase 
away  demons,  and  coerce  the  wicked.  These  names, 
which  were  revealed  to  Zoroaster,  and  are  contained  in 
the  Zendavesta,  are  twenty  in  number,  and  designate 
the  attributes  of  the  Supreme  Being.  The  name  Or- 
muzd —  in  the  Zend,  Ahura-mazda  —  means  the  great 
wise  God.  His  rival's  name  is  Anramainyus,  or,  as  it 
has  been  corrupted  by  Europeans,  Ahriman. 

One  cannot  fail  to  see  a  close  parallel  between  this 
Zoroastrian  system  and  the  theosophy  of  the  Jews. 
The  angel  of  God  apj^ears  frequently  in  the  earlier 
books  of  the  Jewish  canon,  though  there  is  hardly  any 
such  agency  in  the  Mosaic  epoch.  But  the  operation 
of  an  evil  spirit  is  scantily  hinted  at.  We  first  read  of 
such  a  personage  in  the  story  of  Saul's  madness.  We 
read  of  him  again,  in  the  apologue  of  Micaiah,  when  this 
prophet  stood  before  the  misguided  Ahab.  We  read 
of  Satan  in  the  book  of  Job,  the  scene  of  which  is  not 
Jewish,  but  Arabian. 

This  name  Satan  —  that  is,  an  adversary  or  an  enemy 
—  is  used  in  Hebrew  with  the  article  when  it  denotes 
the  superhuman  adversary  of  man.  So  Zechariah,  one 
of  the  later  prophets,  uses  it,  after  the  return  from 
Babylon,  and  therefore  when  the  conception  of  a  spirit- 


94  PAUL   OF  TARSUS. 

ual  foe  had  become  familiar  to  tlie  Jewish  exiles.  But 
elsewhere  throughout  the  Old  Testament,  the  evil 
spirit  is  only  a  subordinate  instrument  of  Jehovah,  a 
power  whom  God  permits  to  deceive  the  reprobate,  to 
torment  the  sinner,  and  to  try  the  good. 

In  the  New  Testament,  however,  but  particularly  in 
the  Apocalypse,  this  personage  is  recognized  as  an  ac- 
tive malevolent  being,  who  seeks  to  thwart  the  designs 
of  the  Almighty,  and  to  pervert  the  souls  of  men.  He 
is  permitted  to  tempt  Christ,  and  his  satellites  torment 
the  bodies  and  distract  the  minds  of  those  whom  they 
inhabit.  He  is  the  prince  of  this  world,  the  power  of 
the  air,  the  father  of  the  disobedient  and  unfaithful,  the 
enemy  of  the  saints,  one  who  disguises  himself  as 
an  angel  of  light,  the  hinderer  of  holy  purposes,  the 
prompter  of  impure  and  unholy  thoughts,  the  devourer, 
the  destroyer,  and,  hereafter,  the  inhabitant,  with  his 
angels,  of  everlasting  fire.  In  the  Apocaly]3se  he  is  the 
leader  of  a  rebel  host,  who  fights  against  Michael  and 
the  angels  of  God,  the  dragon,  the  serpent,  the  prisoner 
for  a  thousand  years,  who  is  afterwards  set  free  to  har- 
ass and  vex  the  faithful,  but  who  will  finally  be  judged 
and  punished.  Out  of  his  mouth  came  those  lying 
prophets  who  have  power  to  deceive  men.  He  has 
a  mystic  name,  which  is  designated  by  a  certain  num- 
ber, and  is  probably  made  up  of  the  numerical  values 
of  the  letters  com])osing  it,  as  those  names,-  Abraxas, 
Mithras,  and  Belinus  were;  the  symbolic  genii  of 
Gnostic,  Persian,  and  Druidical  worship. 

The  Rabbinical  books  of  the  Jews  and  the  writings 


THE   CHRISTIAN  AND  JEWISH  SATAN.       95 

of  Philo  are  full  of  the  same  facts,  for  they  refer  to 
a  hierarchy  of  angels,  evil  and  good  —  to  the  benefi- 
cent action  of  the  one,  to  the  malevolence  of  the  other. 
The  Pharisees,  we  are  told,  acknowledged  angels  and 
spirits,  the  Sadducees  denied  the  existence  of  each 
order.  Thus  the  Gemara  even  said  that  the  tempta- 
tion of  Abraham  was  a  deed  of  Satan,  the  rescue  of 
Isaac  an  interposition  of  Jehovah,  and  a  baffling  of  the 
enemy.  In  the  romance  called  the  book  of  Tobit,  the 
machinery  of  the  story  is  the  mission  of  an  angel,  who 
should  accompany  Tobias  on  his  journey,  should  de- 
fend him  and  his  wife  from  the  machinations  of  Asmo- 
deus,  who  had  previously  slain  those  husbands  to  whom 
Sarah  had  been  wedded,  and  should  bind  the  evil 
spirit  in  the  utmost  parts  of  Egypt. 

IsTo  one  can  ignore  the  fact  that  the  Old  Testament 
recognizes,  and  that  its  teaching  is  based  on,  the  per- 
petual antagonism  of  good  and  evil  —  of  the  struggles 
and  ultimate  victory  of  the  former,  of  the  power  and 
final  punishment  of  the  latter.  But,  while  it  exhibits 
infinite  goodness  under  the  form  of  a  heavenly  Father, 
it  does  not  impersonate  the  opposite  principle  except 
slightly  and  imperfectly.  Nor,  unless  we  repudiate 
every  rule  which  would  guide  us  on  any  other  subject 
when  we  are  discussing  the  affinities  of  an  opinion  or 
belief,  can  we  doubt  that  this  impersonation  of  the 
evil  principle  in  a  chief  of  wicked  spirits  and  in  his 
subordinates,  was  derived  from,  or  suggested  by,  the 
Zoroastrian  theology.  The  Jews  had  been  carried  cap- 
tive into  Assyria  and  Persia,  and  had  been  brought  in 


00  PAUL   OF  TABS  US. 

contact  with  this  religion  when  it  was  in  its  fiill  yigor. 
Daniel,  a  descendant  of  the  royal  house  of  David,  was 
the  chief  of  the  Magi,  receiving  a  name — prince  of 
Bel  —  by  virtue  of  his  eminent  jK^sition  in  the  priest- 
hood of  the  Zoroastrian  system ;  while  another  Jew,  a 
companion  of  his,  was  called  the  servant  of  !N"eho.  It 
was  possible  for  those  Jews  to  retain  their  worship  of 
the  one  true  God  in  the  midst  of  Aryan  theism,  for  the 
Persians  were  not  idolaters.  It  was  possible  for  a 
Jewish  prophet  to  recognize  a  Shepherd  in  C}tus,  and 
even  to  call  him  the  Lord's  anointed.  But  it  is  impos- 
sible to  doubt  that  the  Jews  who  lived  in  Persia 
borrowed  and  transmitted  to  the  returning  exiles  of 
Zerubbabel,  Xehemiah,  and  Ezra,  some  of  the  dualism 
with  which  they  were  made  familiar  at  Susa  and  at 
Babylon.  .  Even  when  Parsism  was  depressed  by  the 
Parthian  dynasty,  the  Chaldean  was  known  at  Rome, 
and  the  Babylonian  Numbers  were  consulted  by  noble 
ladies  at  the  metropolis  of  the  empire. 

When  a  new  religion,  however  pure  and  powerful  it 
may  be,  supplants  another,  it  can  hardly  help  making 
some  compromise  with  its  vanquished  enemy.  It  is  no 
disgrace  to  "Western  Christianity,  that  it  concihated  the 
Paganism  which  it  overthrew,  by  accommodating  its 
feasts  to  the  cherished  memory  of  ancient  rites.  Thus 
we  are  told,  that  the  Christmas  festival  was  fixed  at 
the  winter  solstice,  because  this  period  was  occupied  lq 
the  Roman  calendar  by  the  Saturnalia  —  a  holiday  time 
in  which  the  rigor  of  slavery  was  relaxed,  and  the 
bondsman  was  permitted  a  short  liberty.     Nor  can  any 


PARS!  INFLUENCE   ON  JUDAISM.  97 

one  object  that  the  episcopate  was  founded  on  the 
model  of  those  fiscal  and  military  divisions  which  the 
empire  defined.  Church  government  was  found  to  be 
a  necessity,  and  men  adopted  familiar  forms  for  carry- 
ing out  what  was  to  be  done.  This  kind  of  compro- 
mise accounts  for  the  fetish  worship  which  the  Roman 
church  has  revived  and  inculcated  in  the  reverence 
paid  to  relics,  and  for  the  rationalism  which  has  given 
the  peasantry  its  local  saints,  instead  of  Nymphs  and 
Diyads ;  which  has  made  the  mother  of  Christ  a  Juno, 
and,  like  her  pagan  prototype,  which  has  multiplied  her 
by  the  shrines  in  which  she  is  worshipped.  Not  even 
the  stem  monotheism  of  the  Mosaic  code  could  extir- 
pate fi-om  the  Israelite  mind  all  sympathy  with  the 
worship  of  the  Hittite.  The  high  jjlaces  remained ; 
the  returning  ark,  welcomed  by  the  Israelites,  found 
them  gathered  at  Beth-shemesh,  the  house  or  temple 
of  the  sun ;  and  the  house  of  Jacob  constantly  associ- 
ated itself  with  the  gods  of  the  nations  round  about. 

The  influence,  however,  of  a  religion  which  guides 
the  life  and  practice  of  a  great  and  generous  nation, 
Buch  as  the  ancient  Persians  undoubtedly  were,  cannot 
fail  of  being  felt  in  a  still  greater  degree  by  subject 
races.  Besides,  the  Zoroastrian  creed  was  not  repug- 
nant to  the  mind  of  the  captive  IsraeUte.  The  com- 
panions of  Daniel  refuse  to  honor  an  image ;  the 
chief  of  the  Magians,  the  eunuch  of  David's  race,  de- 
clines, on  peril  of  his  life,  to  obey  the  insidious  sugges- 
tion of  the  courtiers  of  Daiius,  and  still  prays  to  his 
God,  with  his  windows  open  in  the  direction  of  Jeru- 
5  G 


98  PAUL  OF  TABS  US. 

salem,  three  times  a  clay.  But  the  hierarchy  of  Zoro- 
aster —  in  which  angels  were  subordinated  to  the  one 
great  Deity  —  was  no  way  alien  to  Daniel's  orthodoxy. 
Nothing  pleases  the  imagination  more  than  to  people 
the  vast  expanse  with  ministering  spirits,  to  ascribe 
the  sorrows  and  sufferings  of  life  to  the  spite  of  malig- 
nant demons.  It  is  the  familiar  habit  of  children  to 
conjure  up  thick  coming  fancies ;  and  at  this  epoch  — 
the  childhood  of  civilization  and  belief — the  same 
energy  of  imagination  delighted  in  the  exuberant  growth 
of  these  divine  and  pure  emanations,  and  constructed, 
as  antagonists  to  them,  a  host  of  gloomy  and  passion- 
ate spirits,  who  strove  to  drag  men  down  to  their 
own  likeness,  but  who  could  be  resisted,  baffled,  judged 
by  the  wise  and  pure  in  heart.  To  one  wrapt  in  the 
contemplation  of  this  war  in  heaven,  of  which  man 
was  the  prize,  and  of  which  the  \ictory  was  finally 
assured,  there  was  no  solitude.  The  lonely  hermit  was 
least  alone.  To  one  who  had  in  view  the  pomp  and 
majesty  of  eastern  royalty,  there  was  a  far  nobler  and 
grander  array  in  the  glorious  host  of  heaven,  in  that 
angelic  band,  the  power  of  the  lowest  of  whom  was 
greater  than  that  of  the  mightiest  king,  for  they  are 
the  servants  of  the  Lord  of  Hosts.  The  counterpart  to 
this  regal  splendor  is  the  pomp  of  foded  majesty,  the 
royalty  of  hell.  Just  as  to  the  eastern  mind,  a  good 
and  wise  king,  such  as  Cyrus,  —  the  father  of  Persian 
nationality,  who  had  for  his  attendants  an  immortal 
body  guard,  —  was  the  highest  exemplar  of  human 
excellence   and   beneficence ;   just   as  a  furious,  mad, 


CBEEDS  OF  THE  EAST  AND  TEE  WEST.      99 

suspicious  tyrant,  such  as  Cambyses,  was  the  imperson- 
ation of  malevolence  and  mischief — so  the  unseen 
world  had  its  King  and  His  heavenly  host,  and  also  its 
regal  fiend,  with  his  attendant  demons.  The  Israelite 
eagerly  engrafted  the  two  systems  on  his  national  creed, 
and,  already  made  familiar  with  the  angels  of  God, 
discovered  their  antagonists  in  the  gods  of  the  heathen, 
in  the  devils  of  the  Pauline  epistles,  in  the  evil  spirits 
who  possessed  those  unhappy  men  who  fell  under  their 
sway.  The  same  dualism  has  been  transmitted  to  our 
times,  and  has  become  part  of  the  system  of  popular 
religion.  It  is  so  strongly  intertwined  with  the  inner- 
most sentiments  of  the  human  heart,  that  the  imagina- 
tion itself  must  be  extinguished  before  dualism  ceases 
to  be  acknowledged. 

The  creed  of  the  East  was  a  supernaturalism,  with 
an  exact  ceremonial,  typical  of  personal  holiness,  and 
a  strict  discipline  which  imposed  penances  or  punish- 
ments on  those  who  violated  its  moral  precepts.  The 
creed  of  the  West  was  the  worship  of  nature,  without 
any  permanent  ceremonial,  and  with  no  higher  moral 
code  than  was  absolutely  necessary  in  order  to  preserve 
society  from  dissolution.  The  supreme  ruler  of  the 
Zoroastrian  world  is  a  pure  spirit  to  whom  sin  is  loath- 
some. The  ruler  of  the  Greek  Olympus  is  the  pres- 
ident of  an  aristocratical  council,  a  capricious,  sensual 
chieftain,  whose  providence  over  human  affairs  is  of 
the  slightest  and  most  uncertain  kind.  With  a  strange 
perversity,  men  —  misled  by  the  dazzling  splendor  of 
Greek  genius  —  have  tried  to  discover  in  the  theogony 


100  PAUL    OF  TARSUS. 

of  the  Greek  creed,  and  in  the  social  life  of  which  it  is 
the  highest  exemplar,  a  lofty  and  simple  morality. 
They  have  mistaken  poetry  for  religion.  The  civiliza- 
tion of  Greece,  and  subsequently  that  of  Rome,  were 
extirpated,  because  neither  was  based  on  religion  or 
morality. 

The  border-land  between  the  East  and  the  West 
was  occupied  by  the  Jews.  It  appears  that  nature 
worship  was  nowhere  more  sensuous  than  among  the 
Phoenicians  of  the  coast.  The  God  of  the  Hebrews  is 
absolutely  spiritual,  absolutely  holy,  and,  as  the  con- 
ception of  Him  is  developed  in  the  prophets,  is  a  Being 
of  perfect  justice,  who  prescribes  and  enacts  obedience 
to  a  Law,  which  is  to  be  interpreted  by  an  intelligent 
and  scrupulous  conscience.  The  creed  of  the  Jew  is 
a  single  sentence,  —  I  am  the  Lord  your  God.  Upon 
this  creed  the  Pharisee  induced  the  dualism  of  the  re- 
mote East,  while  the  Sadducee  insisted  on  retaining 
nothing  but  the  secularism  of  the  Mosaic  revelation, 
in  which  the  immortality  of  man's  soul  might  be  con- 
tained by  implication,  to  which  it  certainly  was  not 
repugnant,  but  by  which  it  was  not  expressly  affirmed. 
The  Sadducee,  however,  was  as  monotheistic  as  the 
Pharisee,  believed  as  rigorously  that  the  Almighty  was 
a  pure  Spirit. 

The  teaching  of  Christianity  was  welcome  to  the 
religious  sense  of  the  western  world.  Its  acceptance 
enabled  the  believer  to  escape  from  the  immeasurable 
grossness  of  nature-worship,  to  take  refuge  in  a  pure 
theology,  to  apprehend  that  for  which  every  creation 


EASTERN  AVERSION   TO   CHRISTIANITY,     101 

groans  and  struggles.  In  those  days  of  conversion, 
men  fulfilled  the  prophecy  of  Isaiah,  and  cast  their 
abominations  of  silver  and  gold,  which  they  had  made 
to  worship,  to  the  moles  and  to  the  bats,  to  the  dark- 
ness of  that  night  from  which  they  had  emerged.  To 
them  Christianity  w^as  emphatically  a  new  creation. 
Old  things  had  passed  away,  all  things  had  become 
new.  It  was  an  escape  from  bondage  to  freedom,  to 
a  glorious  liberty,  and  was  welcomed  with  all  the  fresh- 
ness of  a  first  enthusiasm. 

The  case,  however,  was  different  with  the  eastern 
people.  They  had  already  a  religious  creed,  which 
taught  that  God  was  a  Spirit,  and  that  they  who  wor- 
ship Him  must  do  so  in  spirit  and  in  truth.  They 
were  monotheists,  iconoclasts,  haters  of  symbolism, 
and  of  nature-worship.  They  had  lived  for  ages  un- 
der traditionary  customs  which  no  one  was  prepared  to 
loathe,  under  rites  which  had  been  sanctioned  by  the 
same  authority  which  had  given  them  their  purer 
creed.  Hence,  as  has  often  been  said,  the  Jewish 
Christians  clung  tenaciously  to  the  traditions  of  their 
forefathers,  and  nearly  wrecked  the  prospects  of  Gen- 
tile Christianity,  by  peremptorily  insisting  on  obedience 
to  the  Law  of  Moses.  Even  when  some  liberty  was 
given,  they  insinuated  that  those  who  claimed  re- 
lease from  Jewish  rites  were  enemies  to  the  spirit  of 
Christianity,  and  the  secret  advocates  of  a  compromise 
with  idol-worship  and  licentiousness.  As  with  other 
Eastern  converts,  there  was  an  unwillingness  to  abandon 
those   gorgeous   visions  with  which  the  unseen  world 


102  PAUL    OF   TARSUS. 

was  peopled,  and  to  accept  those  simple  jDractical  prin- 
ciples by  which  the  Christian  life  was  to  be  guided. 
In  the  West  the  Magian  was  an  adventurer;  in  the 
East  he  worshipped  at  the  foot  of  the  infant  Jesus, 
was  the  hierophant  of  transcendental  revelations,  the 
mystic,  the  gnostic,  the  man  possessed  of  knowledge, 
the  knowledge  which  inflated  a  man  with  a  sense  of 
self-importance,  the  knowledge  which  the  author  of 
the  epistle  to   Timothy  designates  as  falsely  named. 

This  Gnosticism  was  born  at  a  time  when  the  hu- 
man mind  was  more  eager  after  belief,  and  more  ready 
to  construct  systems,  than  at  any  epoch  in  its  history. 
It  offered  the  most  energetic  and  the  richest  visions  to 
the  believer,  and  it  is  not  marvellous  that  it  had  many 
teachers  and  a  vast  following  of  disciples.  It  extended 
itself  widely  through  the  eastern  world,  and  affected 
not  a  little  of  the  western.  Its  spnbols  are  still  exist- 
ent in  great  numbers  in  the  form  of  gems,  engraved 
with  composite  emblems  and  legends.  It  was  a  for- 
midable rival  of  orthodox  Christianity  up  to  the  sixth 
century,  and  unqviestionably  leavened  it  with  many  of 
its  speculative  formularies.  It  did  not  expire  in  Europe 
till  just  before  the  Reformation,  if  indeed  its  influence 
may  not  be  traced  still  later.  It  constitutes  the  occult 
science  of  Cornelius  Agrippa.  The  description  which 
Mr.  Layard  gives  of  the  tenets  entertained  by  the 
Yezidis  clearly  indicates  that  the  religion  of  these 
devotees  can  be  traced  to  a  Gnostic  origin.  The 
Gnostics  were,  in  their  own  language,  according  to 
Gesenius,  the  Elect,  and  a  sect  which  calls  itself  elect 
is  apt  to  have  a  long  vitality. 


CHARACTERISTICS   OF   GNOSTICISM.        103 

The  fundamental  characteristics  of  Gnosticism  are 
its  dualism,  its  doctrine  of  emanations,  its  assertion 
that  the  God  of  the  Jews,  the  God  of  the  visible  crea- 
tion, was  an  inferior,  if  not  an  evil  spirit.  The  schools 
of  Gnosticism  differed  in  many  particulars,  but  they 
invariably  affirmed  the  three  doctrines  stated  above.  A 
supreme  intelligence  exists,  an  eternal,  immutable  inef- 
fable being,  against  whose  purity  and  power  evil  is 
arrayed,  and  from  whom  proceed  the  various  forces 
by  which  evil  is  combated.  And  as  these  visionaries 
thought  matter  was  evil,  —  a  doctrine  which  may  be 
traced  in  the  philosophy  of  Greece,  —  they  believed 
that  the  creator  of  the  visible  world  was  either  uncon- 
scious of  the  mischief  which  his  creation  would  work 
on  the  intelligence  which  it  coerced  or  restrained,  or 
that  he  spitefully  weighted  the  pure  spirit  of  man  with 
the  gross  and  polluting  burden  of  matter.  Hints  of 
this  theosophy  are  found  in  the  Septuagint,  in  Philo, 
in  the  Kabbala,  in  the  significant  words  of  the  first, 
in  the  allegorizing  theory  of  the  Law,  which  marks 
the  second,  and  in  the  emanations  of  Adam  Cadmon, 
the  typical  or  perfect  man,  the  macrocosm  to  whom  the 
individual  is  the  microcosm,  of  the  third.  Ten  of 
these  emanations,  according  to  the  Kabbala,  proceeded 
from  the  perfect  Adam.  The  same  authority,  according 
to  M.  Matter,  affirms  that  the  parts  of  man's  nature, 
his  appetites,  his  passions,  his  reason  and  his  spirit, 
proceed  from  the  four  worlds  of  angels  which  influ- 
ence and  control  him.  This  fourfold  division  of  man's 
inner  nature  is  characteristic  of  Greek  philosophy. 


104  PAUL   OF  TARSUS. 

Abundant  illustrations  could  be  given  of  the  manner 
in  which  Gnostic  phraseology  pervades  those  writings 
of  the  Canon,  which  are  expressly  directed  against  the 
doctrine  which  those  dreamers  inculcated,  most  of  all 
from  the  Apocalypse.  Here  the  seven  spirits,  the 
twenty-four  elders,  the  Alpha  and  Omega,  the  mystic 
number  of  the  Beast,  are  all  counterparts  of  that  theory 
of  emanations  which  began  with  Cerinthus,  and  was 
completed  by  Valentinus  and  Marcion.  But  the  use  of 
certain  Greek  words  is  even  more  suggestive  of  the 
manner  in  which  the  language  of  the  apostles  was  per- 
meated by  the  phraseology  of  this  wide-spread  and  ver- 
satile school.  The  reader  may  find  examples  of  these 
usages  in  the  elaborate  work  of  M.  Matter.  The  Shep- 
herd of  Hermas,  once  believed  to  be  a  canonical  book, 
is  framed  on  a  Gnostic  model,  with  its  seven  women 
representing  the  Virtues  who  wait  about  the  Church. 
The  writers  of  the  New  Testament  do  not,  it  is  true, 
accept  the  theory  which  these  words  imply,  —  nay, 
they  are  impliedly,  or,  in  express  terms,  profoundly 
hostile  to  the  Gnostic  hypothesis,  —  but  they  could  not, 
in  the  existing  state  of  theological  language,  avoid  the 
employment  of  terms  which  the  speculative  temper  of 
the  Eastern  mind  had  appropriated  and  characterized. 
These  words  might  have  been  perverted  by  the  wild 
imagination  of  the  sectaries,  but  they  had  the  advan- 
tage of  being  definite,  and  what  philosophy  has  ever 
disdained  to  spoil  its  rivals  of  their  annor  ? 

The  narrative  of  an  interview  between  St.  Peter  and 
Simon  is  contained  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.     The 


SIMON  OF  SAMARIA.  105 

latter  is  described  as  resident  in  Samaria,  though  he 
was,  according  to  Justin,  a  native  of  Gitti,  a  village 
near.  This  man,  by  his  magical  arts,  had  deceived  the 
people  of  Samaria,  who  called  him  the  great  power  of 
God  —  which  is,  by  the  way,  a  Gnostic  formula.  We 
are  further  told  that  Simon  enrolled  himself  among  the 
converts  of  Philip,  and  that  the  apostleS  came  down  to 
Samaria  to  receive  the  converts,  and,  by  imposition  of 
hands,  to  bestow  on  them  the  Holy  Spirit.  Thereupon 
Simon  offered  the  apostles  money,  with  the  request  that 
he  might  receive  the  apostolic  privilege  of  conferring 
this  gift  of  the  Spirit.  He  is  sternly  rebuked  by  Peter, 
who  bids  him  repent  and  ask  for  forgiveness ;  and  the 
narrative,  as  far  as  Simon  is  concerned,  is  concluded  by 
a  request  on  Simon's  part,  that  the  apostles  would  pray 
for  him,  that  no  misfortune  should  come  on  him  for  his 
presumption.  Henceforth,  the  Scriptures  make  no 
mention  of  the  Samaritan.  Another  Magian  confronts 
St.  Paul  in  Paphos,  is  more  severely  reprimanded,  and 
is  visited  with  a  sharper  judgment. 

The  rest  of  Simon's  history  is  enveloped  in  a  cloud 
of  fable.  Justin  Martyr  says,  that  he  persuaded  the 
Emperor  Claudius  and  the  senate  to  erect  a  statute  to 
him  on  the  Tiberine  Island,  the  apologist  having  mis- 
taken a  dedication  to  a  Sabine  deity  for  an  inscription 
in  honor  of  the  Samaritan.  But  Simon  figures  in  a 
host  of  legends.  He  is  present  at  the  interview 
between  Peter  and  Paul  on  the  one  hand,  and  Nero  on 
the  other,  and  is  represented  as  perishing  in  an  attempt 
to  fly.  He  raised  himself  in  the  air  by  the  aid  of  evil 
5* 


106  PAUL    OF   TARSUS. 

spirits,  and  fell  in  consequence  of  the  prayer  of  Peter. 
In  the  Clementines,  Peter  and  Simon  are  represented 
as  arguing  together.  But,  in  the  whole  literature  of 
the  early  Church,  the  Samaritan  Magian  is  made  the 
founder  of  a  system  which  claims  to  be  antagonistic 
to  Christianity.  He  is  not  properly  an  heresiarch,  but 
a  rival  to  Christ,  as  Apollonius  of  Tyana  was,  after  the 
adventures  of  the  Tarsian  devotee  had  been  manipu- 
lated by  his  biographer  Philostratus. 

Simon,  according  to  Irenseus,  claimed  to  be  the  voice 
of  God.  The  supreme  Being  was  "  He  who  is  fixed," 
"the  root  of  all  things."  From  this  Being  emanate 
three  pairs  of  derived  beings,  one  of  which  is  the 
mother  of  all  that  exists,  —  spirits,  angels,  and  arch- 
angels. This  personage  is  Ennoia  or  IntelHgencc,  who 
is  perpetually  persecuted  by  evil  spirits,  and  is  pre- 
served by  the  Supreme  Being,  in  order  to  be  manifested 
to  mankind  by  the  agency  of  Simon.  The  Jewish  God 
was  one  of  the  angels  of  this  Intelligence,  and  was  the 
author  of  the  visible  world.  Irenaeus  adds  to  his 
account  of  Simon,  that  his  followers,  a  century  and  a 
half  later,  had  fallen  into  gross  licentiousness,  and 
excused  their  .vices  on  the  ground  that  there  was 
neither  morality  or  immorality  in  external  acts.  It  is 
only  by  his  dualism  that  Simon  is  identified  with 
Gnosticism. 

The  sect  really  sprang  out  of  Christianity.  The 
earliest  Gnostics  came  from  Egypt,  and  were  familiar 
with  the  allegories  of  Philo.  With  Cerinthus,  Christ 
was  the  son  of  Joseph  and  Mary,  and  as  a  man  was 


THEORIES   OF   QNOSTW   WRITERS.        107 

superior  in  justice,  foresight,  wisdom,  and  therefore 
power,  to  all  other  men.  He  received  the  Divine 
Nature  at  His  baptism  in  the  Jordan,  and  was  there- 
upon an  emanation  from  the  Supreme  Being. 

Marcion,  the  most  eminent  of  the  Gnostics,  was,  we 
are  informed,  fond  of  quoting  the  saying  of  Christ, 
"Put  not  new  ^\ine  into  old  bottles."  He  meant  to 
imply  that  those  Christians  who  had  been  familiarized 
with  the  grand  complications  of  the  Eastern  theogony 
must  needs  incorporate  their  profound  and  magnificent 
conceptions  with  the  simple  creed  of  the  Apostles. 
The  Gnostic  was  unwilling,  on  being  admitted  within 
the  sanctuary  of  the  new  covenant,  to  strij^  himself  of 
his  gorgeous  traditions ;  he  must  needs  enter  clothed 
in  them.  They  are  susceptible  of  a  spiritual  interpre- 
tation. They  are  revelations  anterior  to  this  last 
experience  of  the  Divine  development,  but  they  can  be 
made  to  harmonize  with  Christianity.  Some  of  those 
persons  allegorized  the  mythology  of  Greece,  and  dis- 
covered JEons  in  the  Olympian  deities,  allowing  their 
imagination  to  run  riot  in  the  strangest  theories  as  to 
the  meaning  of  Greek  myths,  and  the  origin  of  Gen- 
tile practices.  Some  of  these  interpretations  are  as 
grotesque  as  the  latest  allegory  of  the  Homeric  poems, 
under  which  the  heroes  of  the  Iliad  are  impersonations 
of  the  Sun  and  Moon  and  Stars,  of  Nature,  of  Night 
and  Day,  of  the  Seasons  and  the  Winds. 

Let  us  take  the  scheme  of  Saturninus.  God,  says 
this  Gnostic,  is  one,  unknown  by  all,  ineffable,  inacces- 
sible.    The  Gnostic  is  less  exacting  than  some  writers, 


108  PAUL    OF   TARSUS. 

who  have  told  us  that  the  attributes  of  the  Almighty 
are  utterly  unknown  to  man,  and  that  the  divine  moral- 
ity conforms  to  no  human  standard  or  experience.  He 
allows  that  all  beings,  with  their  attributes,  proceed 
from  Him  by  way  of  emanation. 

The  highest  power  of  God  is  His  Wisdom  or  Word. 
This  is  the  first-born  Son  of  God,  the  ideal  type  by 
which  the  most  perfect  of  all  creatures,  man,  is  created 
and  formed.  But  the  creation  of  man  was  committed 
to  an  inferior  power  —  the  Jewish  God.  He  had  re- 
ceived a  mission  to  make  man  in  the  image  of  God, 
but  in  error  he  did  not  realize  the  Divine  type,  the 
heavenly  Adam.  Man  was  created  a  creeping  thing. 
The  Word,  as  pitying  his  unhappy  condition,  bestowed 
on  him  a  ray  of  Divine  life.  But  so  feeble  was  the 
work  of  the  inferior  God,  that  the  breath  of  the  Word, 
by  which  humanity  was  enlightened,  became  powerless 
to  effect  his  restoration  to  the  Divine  image.  Christ 
therefore  came  down  from  heaven  to  j^ut  an  end  to  the 
office  of  the  Jewish  God,  and  to  save  those  who  be- 
lieve in  Him  —  those,  namely,  who  have  preserved  that 
ray  of  Divine  Ught  which  was  given  to  the  first  man, 
and  transmitted  to  his  descendants.  The  moment  they 
have  lost  the  ray  of  Divine  light  (and  they  lose  it  by 
the  overaiastering  influence  of  evil  spirits),  the  Avay  of 
return  to  God  is  irrevocably  closed.  This  heresiarch 
forbade  his  followers  to  contract  marriage  and  beget 
children. 

Bardesanes,  one  of  these  Gnostics,  the  chief  of  an- 
other sect,  who  wrote  against  Marcion,  was  the  author 


THE    GNOSTIC  IDEA   OF  OOD.  109 

of  the  first  Christian  hymnal.  We  are  told  that  he 
composed  a  hundred-and-fifty  sacred  songs,  which  were 
set  to  music  by  his  son,  and  were  used  by  the  orthodox, 
to  their  danger  and  detriment,  till  Ephrem  the  Syrian 
superseded  them  by  other  words,  the  tunes  being 
retained,  just  as  the  English  pietists  of  the  last  century 
adapted  religious  words  to  secular  music.  Nor  is  there 
much  doubt  that  the  ascetic  Montanus,  who  won  over 
the  arrogant  and  fervid  spirit  of  Tertullian,  gathered 
his  strange  notions  of  the  Comforter  fi'om  the  example, 
if  not  from  the  teaching  of  the  Gnostic  sects,  who 
represented  every  form  of  mysticism,  fi'om  antinomian 
grossness  to  ecstatic  and  morbid  rigor. 

We  know  these  grotesque  doctrines  only  through 
those  who  detested  them,  stigmatized  them,  and  per- 
haps caricatured  them.  It  is  to  be  regretted  that  no 
single  work  has  come  down  to  us  from  those  who  taught 
what  they  called  knowledge.  Had  such  been  our  for- 
tune, we  might  peihaps  have  been  able  to  construct 
the  system  of  these  Syrian  and  Alexandrian  mystics, 
and,  however  alien  the  scheme  might  prove  to  our 
habits  of  thought,  have  discerned  that  Valentinus, 
Basileides,  Bardesanes,  Saturninus,  had  at  least  as  well 
ordered  an  imagination,  as  noble  a  conception  of  God, 
as  rational  a  hagiology  as  those  of  many  men  who 
have  challenged  and  obtained  the  reputation  of  ortho- 
doxy. 

This,  however,  at  least  is  clear.  The  Gnostic  idea 
of  God  was  pure  and  even  sublime.  But  the  concep- 
tion which  assigns  the  work  of  the  visible  world  to  a 


110  PAUL    OF  TARSUS. 

malignant  deity,  because  the  Gnostic  cherished  an 
insane  hatred  of  matter ;  the  savage  temper  which  dis- 
cerns nothing  in  creation  but  misery,  disorder  and  vice, 
and  which  shows  its  contempt  for  the  body  by  fierce 
austerity,  —  or  gross  licentiousness,  are  grotesque  mis- 
conceptions of  that  Providence  which  these  enthusiasts 
allowed.  Worse  still  was  that  sullen  j^ride  which  lim- 
ited the  office  of  the  Redeemer  to  a  pri^dleged  race,  to 
a  few  individuals,  capriciously  chosen,  whose  grant  of 
this  election  was  certified  to  them  by  some  inward  con- 
viction, and  was  perfected  by  an  absorbing  contemj^la- 
tion ;  which,  without  the  evidence  of  jDcrsonal  holiness, 
or  the  fulfilment  of  personal  duties,  transported  them 
to  the  bosom  of  God  ;  which,  finally,  asserted  that  the 
nature  of  the  true  Gnostic  is  like  gold,  the  brightness 
of  which  no  pollution  can  dim,  no  contamination  affect. 
But,  though  the  name  of  Gnostic,  of  Catharist,  or 
Paulician,  has  faded  away  under  the  anathema  of 
orthodoxy,  it  is  doubtful  whether  the  spirit  has  been 
exorcised.  It  is  still  possible  for  men  to  naiTOw  Al- 
mighty beneficence,  to  arrogate  to  themselves  redemj)- 
tion,  to  think  that  austerity  is  holiness,  that  an  inward 
assurance  is  the  Divine  favor,  to  look  bitterly  on  the 
beauty  of  God's  creation,  and  see  nothing  but  what  is 
evil  in  nature,  even  though  they  may  not  people  the 
world  with  JEons,  and  make  their  own  system  of  belief 
a  series  of  emanations  from  the  Almighty  and  infallible 
exposition  of  His  will. 

We  are  told  —  though  it  is  probable  that  the  state- 
ment must  be  taken  with  caution  —  that  the  Gnostics, 


GNOSTICISM  A    CLAIM   TO    SCIENCE.       Ill 

and  particularly  Marcion,  accepted  a  mutilated  gospel 
of  St.  Matthew,  though  with  some  additions,  and  most 
of  the  epistles  of  St.  Paul,  the  pastoral  letters  being 
rejected ;  but  that  even  those  whose  authenticity  was 
allowed,  were  curtailed  or  interpolated  so  as  to  sustain 
the  doctrines  which  Gnosticism  affirmed.  It  is  signifi- 
cant of  the  extent  to  Avhich  these  tenets  permeated 
Christian  communities,  that  the  Ebionites  and  Naza- 
renes  —  the  bitterest  enemies  of  the  great  Apostle,  the 
persistent  advocates  of  Jewish  Christianity — -are  stated 
to  have  finally  embraced  the  extreme  Gnostic  doctrine 
of  a  particular  redemption,  and  the  perfectibility  of 
man  by  asceticism  and  contemplation.  We  are  told 
that  they  said  of  the  Redeemer,  that  "  He  was  called 
the  Christ  of  God  and  Jesus,  because  no  one  before 
Him  had  fulfilled  the  Law ;  but  that  if  another  had  done 
so,  he  could  have  been  Christ,  and  that  they,  by  doing 
the  like,  would  become  christs,  since  He  was  a  man 
like  unto  themselves."  This  wasted  sect  of  Judaizers, 
who  lingered  on  by  the  Dead  Sea,  was  still  open  to  the 
temptation  which  other  sects  have  fallen  into,  and 
which  are  characterized  by  St.  Paul  in  one  of  his 
pithiest  and  most  prophetic  sentences  —  Knowledge 
pufFeth  up,  but  love  buildeth  up. 

The  essence  of  the  Gnostic  system,  whatever  were 
the  formularies  with  which  it  introduced  its  dogmas, 
was  the  saving  power  of  knowledge  or  science.  It 
matters  nothing  that  the  material  of  this  knowledge 
was  a  long  array  of  subjective  or  imaginary  essences, 
the  "bodiless  expansions  of  a  cunning  ecstasy."     They 


112  PAUL   OF  TARSUS. 

were,  if  we  can  believe  that  the  votaries  of  this  system 
propounded  them  all  in  good  faith,  as  real  to  the  Gnos- 
tic as  the  laws  of  nature,  or  the  succession  of  geologi- 
cal epochs,  or  the  development  of  species  are  to  the 
physicists  of  our  oAvn  day.  The  Gnostics  wished  to 
give  an  interpretation  to  a  set  of  ficts,  or  to  an  array 
of  mj-ths  which  had  been  accepted  as  facts,  and  believed 
that  they  had  gained  the  key  to  their  solution,  by  mar- 
shalling a  progressive  development  of  heavenly  entities. 
They  believed  that  by  the  steady  contemplation  of 
these  great  realities,  the  soul  of  man  might  be  educated, 
ennobled,  purified,  glorified.  The  knowledge  which 
they  possessed  separated  them  from  the  vulgar  and 
perishing  herd  of  men,  made  them  the  elect  of  a  Divine 
wisdom,  delighted  them  with  the  ravishing  dream  that 
they  were  the  pecuhar  objects  of  the  Divine  favor,  the 
self-made  possessors  of  a  saving  science.  The  spirit  of 
the  Gnostic  is  found,  not  in  what  he  knew,  which  a  later 
philosopher  declares  to  be  visionary,  but  in  the  utter 
absence  of  that  love  of  man  for  the  sake  of  God,  which 
is  the  practical  side  of  religion,  and  of  that  clinging  to 
a  Divine  ideal  of  moral  excellence,  and  perfect  holiness, 
which  constitutes  the  contemplative  side  of  the  same 
religion. 

There  need  be  no  antagonism  between  the  religious 
sense  and  scientific  method.  A  clear  and  keen  intelli- 
gence, which  observes  diligently,  and  draws  careful  in- 
ductions from  its  observations,  is  quite  compatible  with 
that  sensitiveness  which  stimulates  and  strengthens  the 
sense  of  public  and  private  duty,  because  it  lives  in  the 


RELIGION  AND   SCIENCE.  113 

sight  of  God,  and  does  its  part  in  regenerating  and 
purifying  man  for  God's  sake,  according  to  its  power. 
There  is  not,  and  there  cannot  be,  any  natural  discord 
in  the  constituent  faculties  of  man's  being.  All  the 
forces  which  make  up  the  identity  of  the  individual 
may  be,  and  ought  to  be,  in  harmony ;  may  be  made  to 
assist  each  other  in  the  work  which  each  man  has  to  do. 
In  true  and  healthy  minds  such  a  harmony  does  exist. 
Nothing  is  more  graceful,  nothing  more  winning  than 
the  union  of  acute  intellectual  power,  and  the  tender 
gentleness  of  an  affectionate  desire  to  do  good,  because 
the  heart  yearns  after  purifying  and  elevating  the  ob- 
ject of  such  goodness.  Nor  does  experience  lack  ex- 
amples of  so  noble  a  conjunction  of  energies. 

But,  as  the  religious  sense  may,  unhappily,  become 
harsh  and  bitter,  may  be  perverted  by  narrowness,  by 
spiritual  pride,  by  sinister  motives ;  so  men  may  insu- 
late themselves  under  a  feeling  of  profound  satisfaction 
at  their  own  attainments  in  knowledge,  and  of  con- 
tempt for  those  who  are  unequally  instructed  with 
themselves.  Any  kind  of  learning  may  suffice  to  effect 
this  perversion,  for  the  Gnostic  professed  to  possess  the 
highest  and  truest  learning  with  which  his  age  was 
supplied,  and  this  on  the  most  important  and  absorbing 
subject.  The  temper  of  the  Gnostic  does  not  cease  to 
influence  men,  because  the  sciences  of  observation  have 
superseded  in  exactness  and  interest  the  constructions 
of  the  Gnostic  imagination.  Any  kind  of  knowledge 
may  serve  to  inflate  its  possessor  with  an  over-weening 
sense  of  his  own  acuteness  and  superiority.     It  may  be 


114  PAUL   OF  TARSUS. 

tlie  dry  theory  of  the  economist,  according  to  which 
men  are  conceived  to  be  held  together  by  mutual  inter- 
est, and  individualized  by  an  enlightened  selfishness; 
or  the  method  of  nature,  the  knowledge  of  which  may 
fill  the  student  with  a  modish  conceit  of  his  own  quick- 
ness ;  or  learning ;  or  philosophy.  It  may  be  impossible 
to  construct  a  logical  religion,  and  to  give  proof  of  the 
emotions  by  which  man  clings  to  a  living  God.  But 
the  religious  sense,  if  it  be  just  and  loving,  at  least  does 
this  much.  It  binds  men  more  closely  together  than 
any  other  force  can;  it  gives,  as  long  as  it  reigns  in 
man,  cohesion  and  duration  to  the  unity  which  it  cre- 
ates ;  it  constructs  and  purifies  society ;  it  makes  man 
reverent  towards  his  fellow-man,  pitiful,  tender,  forgiv- 
ing, courteous,  graceful,  gentle.  If  it  dies  or  is  per- 
verted. Society  becomes  a  camp,  in  which  distrust  is 
perj^etual  and  panic  is  imminent ;  in  which  the  enemy 
is  at  the  gate,  and  the  sj^irit  of  resistance  is  gone.  So, 
at  least,  experience,  past  and  present,  informs  us.  It  is 
possible,  that,  at  the  instant  of  this  ruin,  Archimedes  still 
sits,  poring  over  his  problem,  unconscious  of  the  crisis, 
indifferent  in  the  midst  of  his  speculation  to  the  crash, 
the  havoc,  the  despair.  After  the  agony  is  over,  the 
same  sentiment  will,  unless  a  people  be  utterly  lifeless, 
revive  and  renew  the  strength  which  has  been  wasted, 
and  men  will  eagerly  welcome  the  force  which  has 
hitherto  been  found  to  constitute  the  very  soul  of  hu- 
man society. 

After  all,  the  highest,  worthiest,  truest  of  all  human 
knowledge,  is  that  which  is  directed  towards  purifying 


THE  NOBLEST  SCIENCE.  115 

and  ennoblinti*  man.  He  who  discovers  the  knowleds^e 
of  this  method,  and,  having  discovered  it,  seeks  to 
make  it  the  law  of  social  life,  is  the  wisest  savant,  the 
truest  teacher  of  mankind.  The  worth  of  the  knowl- 
edge which  analyzes  a  plurality  of  worlds  is  not  dis- 
paraged when  it  is  said  that  it  is  of  little  import  by  the 
side  of  that  wisdom,  if  it  can  be  found,  and  that  under- 
standing, if  its  j^lace  can  be  detected,  which  makes  man 
happier,  and  stronger,  and  better.  The  greatest  victo- 
ries of  science  are  little  better  than  a  thaumaturgy,  if 
they  have  no  effect  on  the  well-being  of  society.  They 
may  become  the  instrument  of  conceit  to  him  who  wins 
them,  the  instrument  of  oppression  to  him  who  uses 
them.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  impossible  for  a 
science  of  social  morality  to  make  true  progress,  unless 
the  whole  race  of  man  is  bettered  by  it.  It  is  impossi- 
ble that  it  should  influence  mankind  without  making 
each  successive  generation  stronger  and  more  just. 
Like  every  other  good  force,  it  may  be  misused  by  de- 
signing persons,  or  parodied  by  charlatans,  who  mislead 
men  into  accepting  the  husk  of  a  true  wisdom,  in  place 
of  its  fruit.  Whether  Christianity  has  or  has  not  finally 
achieved  this  science  of  social  life,  is  a  larger  question 
than  can  be  discussed  here.  But  it  is  plain,  that  Jesus 
of  Nazareth  intended  to  propound  such  a  science,  that 
the  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles  intended  to  affirm  and  ex- 
pound the  science,  and  that  the  permanent  enemy  of 
Christianity  is  the  theory  that  the  knowledge  of  God  or 
nature,  and  the  blessings  of  God  or  nature,  are  the  heri- 
tage and  privilege  of  the  few,  the  elect,  the  fortunate. 


116  PAUL   OF  TARSUS. 

Critics  have  detected  traces  of  the  Gnostic  system 
in  the  pastoral  epistles,  and  have,  thereupon,  discred- 
ited their  authenticity.  It  is  known  that  Gnosticism 
ripened  in  the  early  part  of  the  second  century,  and  it 
is  inferred  that  the  "  falsely-named  knowledge  "  of  the 
First  Epistle  to  Timothy  is  a  reference  to  the  Emana- 
tions of  these  sectaries.  But  the  lano-ua^e  of  the 
Apostle  is  not  necessarily  directed  against  those  whom 
we  know  as  Gnostics.  It  seems  rather  to  point  to 
those  Jewish  or  semi-Jewish  sects,  which  are  known 
to  have  sprung  up  in  the  cities  of  Asia-Minor,  and  to 
have  attempted  a  compromise  between  the  learning'  of 
the  Rabbis  and  the  tenets  of  Christianity,  or,  at  least, 
to  have  overlaid  the  latter  by  the  former.  The  Apos- 
tle was  reasonably  jealous  of  any  addition  which  might 
be  made  to  the  simple  creed  which  he  had  taught ;  for 
he  well  knew  that  nothing  deadens  the  sense  of  reli- 
gion so  much,  as  the  reduction  of  it  to  a  set  of  formal 
definitions,  the  acceptance  of  which  might  be  construed 
into  an  equivalent  to  that  energy  of  faith  and  love, 
which  his  instincts  and  his  experience  assured  him  were 
the  true  constituents  of  the  Christian  temper. 

Besides,  though  Gnosticism  culminated  in  the  second 
century,  it  does  not  follow  that  it  was  not  existent,  and 
even  active,  in  the  first.  The  earliest  Christian  con- 
troversialists give  us  the  names  of  the  Gnostic  savants, 
but  they  do  not  expound  to  us  the  origin  of  the  Gnos- 
tic temperament.  If  the  exposition  given  above  is 
satisfactory.  Gnosticism,  in  some  shape  or  other,  is  not 
of  one  ao^e,  but  of  all  —  is  not  the  title  of  an  extinct 


THE   GNOSTIC  TEMPER  PERMANENT.       117 

theology,  but  the  equivalent  of  a  permanent  phase  of 
human  thought.  That  men  busied  themselves  with  the 
origin  of  evil,  and  recognized  its  antagonism  to  good, 
in  a  formal  dualism,  long  before  the  apostolic  age,  is 
historically  certain.  That  they  had  constructed  a  cos- 
mogony on  this  principle  is  equally  clear.  Tliat  they 
had,  according  to  the  foshion  of  the  time,  realized  the 
development  of  the  universe  by  impersonating  creative 
power  in  a  series  of  angelic  beings,  is  as  plain  as  proof 
can  make  it.  But  this  is  only  the  shell  of  Gnosticism. 
Its  kernel  is  the  substitution  of  theology  for  trust  in 
Go'd,  knowledge  for  religion,  contemplation  for  duty, 
philosophy  for  love.  The  system  of  the  Stoic  and  Pla- 
tonist,  as  critics  and  rivals  of  Christianity,  was  only 
another  phase  of  the  same  theory  —  was  equally  the 
substitution  of  the  individual  mind  for  the  body  of 
Christ,  and  the  growth  of  the  perfect  man  —  the  peace 
of  the  absorbed  and  enlightened  intellect  for  the  peace 
of  God  —  the  salvation  of  the  few,  by  their  own  power 
and  holiness,  for  the  redemption  of  the  world  by  the 
Passion  and  the  Presence  of  Christ.  We  ought  to  be 
far  from  wondering  that  the  Apostle  detected  and  in- 
veighed against  this  tendency.  It  is  rather  to  be  won- 
dered at,  that  his  writings  do  not  contain  frequent 
allusions  to  the  danger  in  which,  from  his  point  of 
view,  men  might  make  shipwreck  of  their  destiny  in  a 
vain  and  engrossing  self-sufficiency.  The  early  Church 
did  recognize  such  a  warning  in  the  Apostle's  state- 
ment, that  the  natural  intellect  of  man  does  not  receive 
the  influence  of  God's  Spirit. 


118  PAUL   OF   TARSUS. 

Nor  is  there  reason  to  think  that  the  genius  of  Gnos- 
ticism is  extinguished  or  evaporated,  or  that  it  ever 
will  fail  to  assert  itself  in  its  own  domain  —  that, 
namely,  of  exclusiveuess,  of  spiritual  or  intellectual 
pride.  It  is  true  that  no  one  now  busies  himself  in 
constructing  a  dualistic  hierarchy,  or  fills  heaven,  and 
earth,  and  hell  with  the  fancies  of  an  unrestrained  im- 
agination. The  steady  progress  of  phenomenal  science 
—  the  regular  method  by  which  it  has  built  up  its  in- 
ductions—  the  success  with  which  it  has  interpreted 
the  order  of  nature — have  made  men  contemptuous 
towards  imaginary  systems,  and  sometimes  even  scep- 
tical as  to  the  existence  of  other  than  sensible  forces. 
The  cosmogonies  of  the  Eastern  sage,  of  the  Greek 
philosopher,  of  the  Western  schoolman,  have  given 
way  to  the  logic  of  facts,  and  the  laws  of  nature  which 
they  exemplify.  Those  exploded  theories  were  at- 
tempts to  interpret  the  i:>henomena  of  Being ;  and  for 
a  time,  at  least,  satisfied  and  delighted  the  mind.  But 
they  are  abandoned  only  because  other  attempts  have 
been  made  to  interpret  the  same  phenomena.  Ptol- 
emy retreats  before  Copernicus  and  Galileo;  the 
scheme  of  elemental  forms,  by  which  Aristotle  at- 
tempted to  interpret  nature,  has  been  superseded  by 
the  chemical  analysis  of  modern  research ;  the  humoral 
theory  of  physiology,  by  which  the  same  philosopher 
tried  to  account  for  growth  and  decay,  for  health  and 
disease,  has  been  abandoned  for  a  microscopic  investi- 
gation into  the  circumstances  of  organic  generation ; 
creation   is   the  formula  of  a  bygone   speculation,  of 


PROBLEMS  OF  THE  OLD    TELNKEBS.       119 

which  development  has  latterly  become  the  scientific 
equivalent. 

The  thinkers  and  reasoners  who  lived  before  and 
after  the  commencement  of  our  era  were  constantly 
busied  with  the  philosoj^hy  of  Being  —  with  the  laws 
of  consciousness  and  nature  —  with  the  conditions  of 
progress  and  change.  To  account  for  all  those  phenom- 
ena of  sense  and  cognition,  they  invented  a  world  of 
imaginary  existences.  Thus,  for  example,  the  appetites 
and  passions,  the  reason  and  the  spirit  of  man,  were 
derived,  according  to  some  of  these  Mystics,  from 
the  four  worlds  of  spirits.  The  characteristic  words 
of  this  system  are  traceable  even  in  the  Septuagint 
—  its  terms  are  freely  employed  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment. 

Childish  and  trifling  as  the  system  which  these  men 
constructed  seems  to  us,  it  satisfied  them.  It  enabled 
them  to  account  for  all  they  saw,  knew,  and  felt  —  to 
give  an  exact  and  formal  account  of  creation,  and  of 
the  facts  of  nature  or  life.  Deeply  enamoured  of  their 
genealogies  and  cosmogonies,  they  wrapt  themselves 
up  in  their  contemplations  —  stood  aloof  from  inter- 
course with  the  unenlightened  world  without  them, 
and  limited  the  possession  of  knowledge  to  those  who 
were,  like  themselves,  engaged  in  solving  the  problems 
of  creation  or  development.  Sometimes  ascetic,  some- 
times licentious,  but  always  for  the  same  reason  —  be- 
cause the  body  was  only  an  accident  to  the  spirit  or 
intelligence  of  man  —  they  lived  in  an  atmosphere  of 
spiritual  and  intellectual  pride.     It  is  Gnosticism  in  its 


120  PAUL    OF   TARSUS. 

rudimentary  form,  or  in  its  tendency,  which  Paul  con- 
trasts with  love  in  the  First  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians. 
Gnosticism,  in  some  shape  or  other,  was  invariably 
adopted  by  the  heresiarchs  of  the  first  three  centuries, 
as  we  see  from  Tevtullian ;  and  it  was  into  an  analo- 
gous creed  that  this  father  of  the  Latin  church  ulti- 
mately seceded,  for  the  Paraclete  of  Montanus  closely 
resembles  "  the  great  power  of  God "  of  Simon,  and 
the  mysterious  Pleroma  of  Basileides. 

"  This  people,"  says  the  Pharisee,  "  who  know  not 
the  Law  are  cursed."  The  creed  of  the  Gnostic  was 
that  of  the  Pharisee,  without  his  Judaism,  without  that 
sense  of  nationality  or  patriotism  which  saved  the 
Jewish  devotee  from  being  absorbed  in  the  worst  of 
egotisms  —  a  belief  in  his  own  spiritual  perfection,  and 
a  scorn  for  the  mass  of  those  who  live  outside  the 
region  on  which  the  rays  of  divine  light  have  shone. 
They  who  had  learned  the  Law  and  its  interpretation 
were  harsh  and  fanatical,  zealous  for  the  maintenance 
of  that  empire  which  they  possessed  over  the  minds  of 
their  countrymen ;  but  they  did  not  forget  that  the 
nation  was  chosen  as  well  as  themselves,  or  repudiate 
the  election  of  Israel  in  the  ascendancy  which  they 
claiified  for  their  own  authority.  They  believed  them- 
selves to  be  an  aristocracy  of  intelUgence  and  education, 
but  the  collective  Israel  was  as  a  nation,  the  soldier 
of  God. 

The  seeker  after  wisdom,  the  Gnostic  who  inserted 
Jesus  and  the  Gospel  into  his  eclectic  creed,  believed 
that   some  men  were  illuminated,  but   that  the  great 


PAULINISM  AND    ONOSTIGISM.  121 

majority  of  mankind  were  consigned  to  impenetrable 
and  unilluminable  darkness.  It  was  a  favorite  dogma 
of  these  idealists,  that  some  were  elect,  and  others 
reprobate.  It  is  true  that  the  Gnostic  did  not  give 
himself  up  to  a  cold  and  apathetic  fatalism,  but  de- 
manded from  those  who  were  conscious  of  their  elec- 
tion a  fervid  energy  of  the  soul,  which  must  be  ever 
directed  towards  that  Being  from  whom  the  illumina- 
tion was  derived.  But  he  was  the  God  of  intelligence 
as  opposed  to  the  God  of  creation,  insulated  in  his  sym- 
pathies, haughtily  indifferent  to  a  world  of  sorrow  and 
ignorance.  The  knowledge  or  wisdom  which  is  not 
combative  contributes  little  to  the  forces  of  human 
progress,  is  not  the  wisdom  which  is  from  above,  be- 
cause it  does  not  aid  in  regenerating  or  redeeming 
mankind. 

It  has  been  stated  that  Gnosticism  was  the  chief 
enemy  with  which  the  nascent  church  contended.  It 
is  almost  certain  that,  in  order  to  meet  this  enemy,  the 
Pauline  doctrines  were  affirmed  by  the  western  and 
accepted  by  the  eastern  churches,  and  that  the  rancor 
which  the  Jewish  Christians  entertained  against  the 
great  Apostle  was  finally  transformed  into  the  rever- 
ence which  has  been  for  so  many  centuries  felt  towards 
him,  as  the  great  doctor  of  the  primitive  church.  Mar- 
cion  accepted  his  Catholic  epistles,  though  in  a  muti- 
lated form.  What  better  weapon  could  be  found  to 
fight  against  these  Mystics  than  the  authority  which 
their  principal  advocate  recognized?  Judaism  was 
repudiated  in  order  that  Pharisaism  might  be  combated 


124  PAUL   OF  TARSUS. 

for  the  force  which  Calvinism  exercised  during  the 
sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries.  Men  were  not 
won  over  to  the  creed  of  the  Geneva  reformer  by  the 
attractiveness  of  the  doctrines  which  he  taught,  but  by 
the  means  which  he  employed  to  assist  in  spreading  his 
creed.  He  appealed  to  republican  sentiment  —  to  that 
passion  for  political  liberty  which  is  always  keenest 
when  men  feel  the  oppressiveness  of  institutions  which 
cease  to  challenge  their  attachment,  and  to  which  they 
are  no  longer  proud  to  be  loyal.  The  most  superficial 
glance  at  the  history  of  the  religious  struggle,  —  in 
France,  where  Calvinism  ultimately  failed  ;  in  Scotland, 
where  it  triumphed ;  in  England,  where  it  ended  in  a 
compromise,  —  will  detect  how  closely  a  political  was 
intert^\'ined  with  a  religious  movement.  It  may  seem 
a  paradox,  but  the  great  convulsion  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  which  we  call  the  French  Revolution,  was  the 
product  of  this  double  energy  —  political  and  religious 
zeal. 

The  Gnostic  was  as  little  anxious  to  confront  the 
military  despotism  nnder  which  he  lived  and  dreamed 
as  the  Christian  enthusiast  was.  But  when  a  creed  or 
a  religion  is  debarred  from  alliance  with  political  advo- 
cates, it  can  commend  itself  only  by  appeals  to  universal 
sympathy,  and  by  the  constancy  with  which  it  endures 
martyrdom.  Christianity  adopted  both  methods  ;  Gnos- 
ticism adopted  neither.  It  was  a  theology  of  particu- 
lar salvation  —  confined  to  the  elect  and  the  illuminated 
only.  Its  adepts,  as  Tertulhan  maintains,  shrunk  from 
suffering  on  behalf  of  their  tenets.     Now  a  faith  which 


i 


CHRIST'S   POLITICAL   MAXIM.  125 

incites  neither  love  nor  admiration  will  have  no  hold  on 
the  minds  of  men.  A  creed,  on  the  other  hand,  may- 
be harsh  and  severe,  may  distribute  its  rewards  and 
punishments  by  no  higher  principle  than  caprice  or 
chance,  and  yet  may  win  its  adherents  by  thousands, 
because  it  appeals  to  some  profound  and  energetic  sym- 
pathy. The  Scotch  Covenanters  did  not  fight  and  die 
for  the  Westminster  Confession,  but  for  liberty  of  con- 
science. Besides,  men  may  accept  a  faith  which  seems 
dark  and  forbidding,  and  yet  find  the  profoundest  con- 
solation in  it,  because  they  look  on  themselves  as  the 
peculiar  objects  upon  which  its  narrow  favors  are 
bestowed  ungrudgingly,  because  they  are  able  to  die 
first. 

As  the  Christianity  of  the  apostolic  age  carefully 
abstained  from  traversing  the  authority  of  the  political 
system  under  which  it  grew,  so  it  shows  no  trace  of 
any  inclination  to  ally  itself  with  the  forces  of  a  friendly 
government,  should  such  a  contingency  arise.  The 
maxim  of  its  Founder,  "  My  kingdom  is  not  of  this 
world,  else  would  my  servants  fight,"  has  its  com- 
plement, implied  but  unexpressed,  that  the  same  king- 
dom declines  the  alliance  of  the  civil  authority  in  aid 
of  its  own  pretensions  to  allegiance,  or  in  effecting  the 
extension  of  its  sway.  From  time  to  time,  a  religious 
movement  has  enlisted  political  sympathies  on  its  side, 
and  may  do  so  again.  But  the  association  must  be 
temporary,  unless  the  religion  is  to  be  enslaved  and 
corrupted.  For  its  own  safety,  it  must  make  only  a 
short  treaty  with  materiaV  and  social  interests.     The 


126  PAUL  OF   TARSUS. 

reason  lies  in  the  facts,  that  its  influence  and  action 
cannot  be  narrowed  to  the  limits  within  w"hich  political 
authority  and  social  opinion  are  contained,  that  its 
agent  is  enthusiasm,  and  that  this  sentiment  can  have 
only  an  occasional  connection  with  political  utility. 

The  mission  of  Christ  is  to  the  world,  —  to  save  it,  to 
renew  it,  to  sanctify  it.  He  propounds  a  general,  why 
not  a  universal  forgiveness?  He  suffered,  the  just  for 
the  imiust,  that  He  might,  as  the  highest  examj^le,  com- 
mence-that service  which  all  those  who  ponder  on  His 
work,  and  thereupon  would  be  His  disciples,  must  needs 
continue...  Like  the  runners  in  the  Athenian  torch- 
race,  each  man  who  is  worthy  of  this  office,  and  has  set 
himself  to  the  work,  is  to  carry  on,  unextinguished,  and 
with  undiminished  fire,  his  love  towards  the  race  of 
which  he  is  a  member.  This  is  the  glory  of  the  noblest 
sacrifice  which  has  ever  been  made  on  man's  behalf. 
Do  they,  who,  following  His  example,  are  willing  to 
lose  their  lives  trusting  that  they  may  find  them, — 
whose  hearts'  desire  and  prayer  is  for  the  salvation  of 
their  people,  —  who  can  even,  in  the  plenitude  of  their 
self-abnegation,  wish  themselves  anathema  from  all 
hope,  if  by  such  means  the  whole  race  be  enlightened, 
—  shall  they  think  that  the  majesty  of  God  is  at 
vaiiance  with  the  fatherly  care  with  which  He  ever 
watches  His  creatures,  or  that  it  is  not  in  His  counsels 
that  mercy  rejoiceth  against  judgment?  To  have  the 
mind  of  Christ,  is  to  continue  the  work  which  He 
began,  to  save  souls,  to  take  part  in  the  great  battle 
against  sin,  misisry,  ignorance,  moral  death.      Such  a 


CHRIST'S  MISSION  AND  MIND.  127 

life  is  the  best  antidote  against  that  morbid  dread  of 
God  which  clouds  the  religious  sense  of  many,  and  that 
indolent  egotism  which  claims  to  be  illuminated,  and  is 
lazily  confident  in  its  own  indefectible  perfection. 


CHAPTER  lY. 

Tr?ARLY  in  the  first  centuiy  after  Christ,  a  Christian 
■^-^  living  at  Nablous,  —  a  city  better  known  by  its 
ancient  name  of  Samaria,  —  addressed  an  Apology  to 
the  Emperor  Antoninus  on  behalf  of  his  fellow-believers. 
This  defence  of  the  new  religion  was  written  by  one 
who  was  well  acquainted  -v^dth  the  Old  Testament  and 
at  least  three  of  the  Gospels,  for  he  quotes  abundantly 
fi'om  these  books.  The  writer,  who  calls  himself  Justin, 
comments  on  the  unfairness  which  treats  the  Christians 
with  severity,  while  he  defends  them  from  those  charges 
of  imj^iety  and  licentiousness  which  were  freely  uttered 
against  them.  In  giving  a  summary  of  their  faith  and 
practice,  he  informs  the  emperor  of  their  method  of 
common  worship,  and  describes  the  ceremony  of  Bap- 
tism, and  of  the  Lord's  Supper  or  Eucharist.  Justin 
gives  the  earliest  account,  after  the  Apostolic  age,  of 
the  ritual  observances  peculiar  to  the  new  sect. 

"  Those,"  he  says,  "  who  agree  with  and  confess  our 
tenets  are  washed  and  regenerated  in  the  name  of  God, 
of  Jesus  Christ  our  Saviour,  and  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 
This  washing  is  called  illumination.  In  this  baptism," 
he  observes,  "  we  do  not  use  the  ineffiible  name  of  God, 
for  if  any  one  did  so,  he  would  be  forthwith  seized  with 


CHRISTIANITT  IN  JUSTIN'S    TIME.         129 

uncontrollable  madness.  When  we  gather  for  worship, 
we  use  common  prayers  in  a  loud  voice,  for  ourselves, 
for  the  person  who  has  been  baptized,  and  for  all  others. 
Then  we  kiss  each  other.  After  this,  bread,  a  cup  of 
water,  and  another  of  wine  are  brought  to  the  person 
who  presides  over  the  brethren.  Thanks  are  offered  to 
God.  The  president  takes  the  viands,  gives  praise  and 
glory  to  the  Father  of  all,  by  the  name  of  the  Son,  and 
the  Spirit  of  the  Holy  One,  offering  general  thanks 
because  the  worshippers  were  deemed  worthy  of  such 
blessings  from  His  hands..  Then  the  deacons  distribute 
the  bread  and  wine  to  those  who  are  present,  and  carry 
them  to  those  who  are  absent..  No  person,  however,  is 
permitted  to  partake  of  them  except  those  who  are 
believers  and  are  baptized.  We  offer  alms,  and  are 
constantly  together.  We  always  meet  on  Sundays, 
when  we  first  read  the  commentaries  of  the  Apostles  or 
the  writings  of  the  Prophets.  When  the  reader  ceases, 
the  president  of  the  meeting  preaches.  We  then  pray, 
and  again  receive  the  bread  and  wine." 

The  first  account  seems  to  describe  the  daily  office, 
and  the  second  to  refer  only  to  the  Sunday  service.  It 
would  appear  that  the  common  prayers  were  some  set 
form,  and  that  they  were  recited  by  the  whole  congre- 
gation. The  method  of  worship  corresponds,  generally, 
to  that  which  is  alluded  to  in  St.  Paul's  First  Epistle 
to  the  Corinthians,  though  disorders  and  confusion  had 
crept  in  upon  the  devotions  of  the  Corinthian  Chris- 
tians. It  may  be  observed,  too,  that  at  Nablous,  —  if 
Justin  is  describing  the  customs  of  the  congregation  in 
6*  I 


130  PAUL   OF  TARSUS. 

his  own  city,  —  there  is  no  regular  minister,  in  any 
modern  sense  of  the  word.  The  word  which  is  trans- 
lated "  president "  does  not  designate  even  a  per- 
manent officer.  The  solemnity  of  the  Lord's  Supper, 
and  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel,  are  performed  by  a 
person  who  is  not  necessarily  possessed  of  any  thing 
but  a  temporary  function.  That  such  a  president  was 
selected  by  reason  of  his  character  and  in  consideration 
of  his  capacity  for  inculcating  the  doctrine  and  rule  of 
the  Christian  life,  may  be  expected ;  but  Justin  gives 
no  hint  of  an  order  or  a  clergy  set  apart  for  this  office, 
still  less  of  any  sacerdotal  mediation,  or  judgment,  or 
spontaneity.  The  primitive  Church  is  a  congregation, 
whose  creed  is  excessively  simple,  whose  ritual  is  an 
act  of  mutual  sympathy,  an  expression  of  common 
needs.  The  author  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  tells 
us  that  there  were  believers  who  did  not  even  collect 
together  for  common  worship  and  mutual  exhortation, 
though  he  advises  the  contrary  practice. 

The  primitive  Christians  —  Justin  being  taken  as  an 
instance  of  their  customs  —  set  great  store  on  partici- 
pation in  the  celebration  of  the  Lord's  Suj^per,  or,  as 
he  calls  it,  in  the  Eucharist.  The  language  which  the 
Apologist  uses  about  this  rite  is  positive  as  to  tlie  belief 
in  its  being  the  means  for  associating  the  Christian 
with  Christ,  and  of  its  being  an  essential  to  salvation 
or  at  least  to  religious  health  and  safety.  If  the  Apol- 
ogy of  Justin  be  genuine,  and  its  genuineness  has  been 
rarely  disputed,  and  if  Justin  can  be  taken,  as  there  is 
no  reason  to  doubt  he  can,  should  the  first  hypothesis 


EARLY  CHRISTIAN  RITES,  131 

be  satisfactorily  accepted,  as  the  type  of  the  Syrian 
Christian  at  the  beginning  of  the  second  century,  the 
ceremonies  of  Christian  initiation,  baptism,  and  the 
Lord's  Supper,  are  severally  treated  as  illumination, 
regeneration,  and  a  partaking  of  the  body  and  blood 
of  Christ. 

The  two  characteristic  offices  of  associated  worship, 
which  the  testimony  of  Justin  shows  to  have  been 
generally  practised  in  the  earliest  Christian  commu- 
nities, are  obvious  symbols  of  natural  use.  A  cere- 
monial purification  was  not  peculiar  to  Christianity. 
It  is  found  in  Judaism,  in  those  Eastern  creeds  which 
influenced  the  religious  sentiments  over  which  Chris- 
tianity was  induced,  and  in  the  lustrations  of  the  Greek 
mysteries.  Physical  purity  was  an  apt  emblem  of 
moral  sanctification,  and  its  sign  was  adopted  by  the 
Great  Master,  as  a  means  of  formal  admission  into  the 
covenant  of  His  Gospel.  Baptism  in  the  name  of 
Christ  becomes,  by  a  natural  feeling,  at  once  a  symbol 
and  a  power. 

One  of  the  earliest,  most  lasting,  and  most  widely- 
spread  among  the  feelings  of  humanity,  is  that  which 
exalts  association  into  unity.  Under  the  influence  of 
this  sentiment,  physical  objects  which  once  belonged 
to  some  dearly-loved  being,  or  physical  acts  wliich 
recall  his  presence  to  the  memory,  renew  the  pleasure 
or  felicity  which  the  presence  of  his  being  once  gave. 
They  form  the  link  by  which  the  soul  can  bind  itself 
to  that  which  has  gone  out  of  its  sight,  and  after  which 
it  is  earnestly  longing.     Relics  and  memorials  are  the 


132  PAUL   OF   TARSUS. 

means  by  which  the  sadness  of  separation  is  lightened, 
by  Avhich  the  reality  of  that  which  is  so  tenderly  loved 
is  certified  and  assured.  Hatred,  on  the  other  hand, 
uses  the  same  stimulants  that  love  does.  The  tender- 
ness which  cherishes  such  mementos  is  akin  to  that 
fierce  malignity  which  collects  the  relics  of  an  enemy, 
in  order  to  make  them  the  material  for  the  incantations 
of  magic  or  witchcraft.  As  the  solicitude  with  which 
deep  afiection  gazes  on  that  which  it  loves  seems  to 
guard  or  protect  the  object  of  its  care,  so  men  have 
believed  that  an  envious  or  hostile  glance  may  wound  or 
weaken  those  against  whom  it  is  directed.  Hatred  is 
not  only  the  counterpart  of  love,  but  it  uses  the  same 
associations  in  order  to  glut  itself 

Out  of  these  sympathies,  assisted  by  such  reminders, 
men  develop  the  permanent  conceptions  of  family,  coun- 
try, church.  It  is  because  they  are  thus  constrained  to 
jDcrpetuate  what  they  have  felt  and  known,  that  they  are 
saved  from  that  isolation,  which  may  flatter  men  with  a 
cynical  sense  of  independence,  but  which  would,  if  it 
were  generally  adopted,  wreck  society,  and  all  the  forms 
under  which  society  is  constituted  and  exists.  To  say 
that  man  cannot  live  alone  is  a  platitude.  But  men  may 
seek  to  sjain  all  the  advantagjes  which  social  life  aflfords 
them,  and  contribute  nothing  to  the  forces  by  which 
they  profit. 

The  moral  progress  of  man  is  not  due  to  the  fact, 
that  in  the  struggle  of  life,  the  strong  have  supplanted 
the  weak,  or  elbowed  them  out  of  existence.  On  the 
contrary,  it  has  been  effected  by  the  fact  that  the  strong 


TEE   SENTIMENT  OF  ASSOCIATION.     133 

have  sheltered  and  cherished  the  weak,  that  they  who 
can  strive  and  conquer  have  used  their  power  and  their 
success  for  the  purpose  of  succoring  the  feeble  and  the 
oppressed,  for  lavishing  the  tenclerest  feeling  and  action 
on  those  who  cling  to  them  for  support  and  protection, 
and  who  have  nothing  to  offer  in  return  for  these  bene- 
fits but  untiring  and  unchanging  love.  It  may  be  that 
man  has  been  developed  to  his  present  condition  out  of 
a  mere  animal  savagery.  It  is  certain,  that  if  this  be 
the  case,  he  owes  all  his  progress  to  actions  which  are 
the  very  reverse  of  that  policy  which  gives  the  weak 
over  as  a  prey  to  the  strong.  It  is  equally  certain,  that 
if  he  does  decline  hereafter  into  barbarism,  he  will  owe 
his  moral  decadence  to  the  spread  of  the  temper  which 
urges  men  to  live  for  themselves  alone. 

The  admiration,  the  worship,  with  which  men  wit- 
ness the  strength  and  wisdom  which  are  used  for  the 
good  of  others,  and  not  for  personal  aggi'andizement,  — 
the  homage  whicH  they  offer  to  courage,  joined  to  gen- 
tleness, —  are  acknowledgments  of  the  great  part  which 
such  qualities  play  in  the  moral  government  of  society. 
Nor  is  this  admiration  less  enthusiastic  because  they 
who  feel  it  are  conscious  only  of  the  benefit  which 
goodness  and  wisdom  confer  on  themselves,  and  do 
not  forecast  their  effects  on  mankind  at  large. 

The  memory  of  Christ  was  riveted  in  the  hearts  of 
His  disciples  and  followers.  He  had  largely  availed 
Himself,  in  the  teaching  which  He  gave  them,  of  the 
sentiment  of  Association,  by  the  use  of  parable  and 
analogy  in    His    discourses    and    actions.       He    had 


134  PAUL    OF  TARSUS. 

instructed  them  in  the  doctrine  that  the  unity  of  man- 
kind was  to  be  found  in  Himself,  and  had  prescribed  a 
ritual  by  which  that  unity  should  be  perpetually  sug- 
gested. When  He  was  gone  from  them,  the  whole 
meaning  of  His  intercourse  with  them  became  aj^par- 
ent  and  permanent.  Before,  their  hearts  were  didl,  and 
they  could  not  understand  Him,  their  eyes  were  holden 
that  they  could  not  see  Him.  Novs^  every  thmg  was 
clear. 

But  nothing  seems  to  have  been  gi'aven  more  indeli- 
bly on  their  memory  than  the  scene  of  the  last  Supper. 
It  is  the  one  event  in  the  life  of  Christ  which  St.  Paul 
narrates.  It  is  the  central  fact  of  the  fourth  gospel,  the 
circumstance  to  which  the  discourses  in  that  gospel 
tend,  or  round  which  they  are  arranged.  It  was 
recalled  to  the  mind  of  all  by  the  necessities  of  daily 
life,  by  the  breaking  of  bread.  The  reminder  was 
cumulative,  the  analogy  natural.  As  human  nature 
requires  daily  sustenance,  so  the  spiritual  nature  which 
is  contained  in  the  life  of  man  needs  daily  nurture.  As 
the  physical  growth  of  man  is  due  to  his  daily  bread, 
BO  the  growth  to  the  measure  of  the  stature  of  the  ful-- 
ness  of  Christ  demands  as  imperatively  the  renewing 
of  that  spiritual  food.  The  showing  forth  of  the  Lord's 
death  is  the  source  of  the  Christian's  life.  The  five 
thousand  are  fed  abundantly,  and  the  fragments  exceed 
the  necessity.  Nay,  the  practice  of  Christian  man  was 
prefigured  in  the  Law.  The  heavenly  food  in  the 
wilderness,  the  ever-flowing  rock  which  accompanied 
the  wanderers  in  the  desert,  are  manifestations  of  the 


SCRIPTURES  QUOTED  BY  JUSTIN.  135 

same  spiritual  force.  Unseen  but  not  undiscovered, 
He  is  in  the  midst.  lie  is  the  Power  of  God  and  the 
Wisdom  of  God. 

The  readings  in  the  Church,  whose  ritual  Justin 
describes,  are  taken  from  the  commentaries  of  the 
Apostles  and  the  Prophetical  books.  The  term  em- 
ployed to  express  these  commentaries  is  that  used  by 
Xenophon  to  denote  the  collection  of  Socratic  conver- 
sations which  is  known  as  the  Memorabilia.  It  is  clear 
that  the  Apologist  was  conversant  with  the  three  gos- 
pels, for  he  freely  quotes  from  them,  though  he  does 
not  name  the  authors  of  these  biographies.  It  may  be 
that  time  has  spared  us  only  some  of  these  compila- 
tions, and  that  the  ruin  which  fell  on  Judea  during  the 
great  war  may  have  been  followed  by  the  loss  of  many 
apostolic  compositions.  The  considerable  space  be- 
tween the  age  of  the  first  Apostles  and  that  of  the 
earliest  Fathers  is  very  imperfectly  illustrated,  is  very 
inadequately  filled  by  the  reminiscences  or  collections 
of  Irenaeus.  St.  Paul  may  have  adverted  to  one  of 
these  lost  books,  when  he  is  said  to  quote,  as  a  well 
known  saying  of  Christ,  that  "  it  is  more  blessed  to 
give  than  to  receive,"  —  a  passage  the  more  r^jnarkable 
as  the  Apostle  hardly  ever  refers  to  these  doings  and 
sayings. 

The  writings  of  the  Prophets  are  those  books  of  the 
Jewish  Scriptures  in  which  Justin  was  very  well  versed. 
Born  a  heathen,  and  bred  a  philosopher,  Justin  tells 
us  that  he  ^vas  converted  from  metaj^hysical  specula- 
tions  to   Christianity,  by   the    conversation  which  he 


136  PAUL   OF  TARSUS. 

held  with  an  old  man  who  accosted  hhn  as  he  was  tak- 
ing a  solitary  walk  on  the  sea-shore.  These  prophet- 
ical writings  were  carefully  studied  by  the  more  learned 
Christians,  as  they  formed  the  best  polemical  weapon 
against  the  Jews,  their  Messianic  character  harmoniz- 
ing with  the  history  of  Christ. 

St.  Paul  gives  us  some  particulars  about  the  ritual 
of  the  Corinthian  Church.  It  had  become  necessary 
that  the  Apostle  should  put  an  end  to  certain  disorders 
and  confusions,  and  establish  in  Corinth  a  uniformity 
with  the  practice  of  other  churches.  There  was  one 
very  notable  peculiarity  in  the  churches  of  this  city, 
which  is  not  jnentioned  as  characteristic  of  any  other 
church,  which  is  not  referred  to  in  the  subsequent  epis- 
tle to  the  same  church,  nor  in  the  epistle  of  Clement. 
It  is  the  power  of  speaking  in  tongues,  —  a  power,  the 
manifestation  of  which  St.  Paul  does  not  wish  to  for- 
bid, though  he  plainly  desires  to  keep  it  within  the 
narrowest  possible  limits.  It  is  probable  that  the  dis- 
couragement with  which  the  Apostle  treats  the  faculty 
may  have,  led  to  its  disuse.  It  is  clear  that  the  fac- 
ulty was  abused,  that  it  tended  to  disorder,  and  that 
its  only  ^^ossible  value  was  that  it  might  attract  the 
tavorable  notice  of  unbelievers,  though  this  advantage 
was  counterbalanced  by  the  risk,  that  an  excessive  or 
simultaneous  exhibition  of  the  power  might  induce  an 
uninstructed  audience  to  believe  the  actors  mad. 

The  persons  who  possessed  the  power  of  speaking 
"  tongues,"  uttered  their  sentences  occasionally  in  a 
foreign  language ;  but  sometimes,  it  would  seem,  gave 


"  SPEAKING  WITH  TONGUES:'  137 

vent  to  unintelligible  sounds.  Some  of  these  outpour- 
ings the  Apostle  compares  to  the  irregular  emission  of 
such  musical  notes  as  have  neither  rhythm  nor  melody, 
or  to  the  blare  of  a  trumpet,  which  does  not  indicate 
any  of  the  known  calls  to  which  soldiers  give  ear.  It 
is  probable,  the  Apostle  says,  that  there  is  no  sound, 
however  numerous  sounds  may  be,  which  is  undevoid 
of  meaning ;  but  if  on^  does  not  know  what  the  sound 
may  mean,  the  utterance  will  be  a  jargon.  A  man, 
indeed,  may  pray  in  language  which  he  himself  cannot 
comprehend,  and  the  act  of  devotion  will  edify  his 
spirit ;  but  his  mind  will  have  no  benefit  from  the 
sounds  expressed,  and  perfect  acts  of  prayer  and  praise 
mnst  be  intelligible  as  well  as  devotional.  Five  words 
which  may  be  comprehended  are  worth  more  than  ten 
thousand  of  those  obscure  sounds.  If  they  must  needs 
be  uttered,  a  very  few  people  should  make  the  ejacula- 
tion, and  .one  should  interpret  it,  if  it  can  be  inter- 
preted. If  no '  interpretation  be  forthcoming,  it  is 
better  for  the  person  who  possesses  the  faculty  to  be 
silent,  as  the  sound  neither  profits  himself  nor  others. 

There  is  a  danger  that  an  honest  enthusiasm  may  lead 
him  who  feels  it  into  strange  freaks  —  that  it  may  be 
simulated  by  others  for  sinister  ends  —  that  it  may 
be  misinterpreted,  even  at  its  best.  It  is  impossible  to 
avoid  the  inference  that  the  reasoning  employed  by  the 
Apostle  —  containing,  as  it  does,  no  small  amount  of 
suggestive  irony  —  should  have  checked,  and  finally 
eradicated,  the  habit  of  speaking  in  "  tongues." 

Far -superior,  however,  to  this  ecstatic,  and  some- 


138  PAUL    OF   TARSUS. 

what  siipei-fluous  gift,  is  that  of  prophesying,  as  St. 
Paul  calls  it.  It  is  the  most  serviceable  of  spiritual 
gifts  —  edifying  and  instructing  individuals  and  the 
Church.  It  may  be  communicated  to  all  believers. 
Other  gifts  may  be  used  with  thankfulness  when  be- 
stowed ;  this  is  that  gift  which  all  should  desire  to 
obtain ;  it  is  that,  says  the  Apostle,  which  I  wish  that 
all  of  you  possessed. 

The  names  and  history  of  those  eminent  men  who 
had  guided  the  public  policy  of  Israel  during  the  mon- 
archy were  familiar  facts  to  both  Jew  and  Christian. 
Some  of  them  had  written  books.  At  least,  their  re- 
corded sayings  were  collected  and  set  in  order  by  their 
disciples.  These  works,  under  the  general  name  of 
"  The  Prophets,"  were  esteemed  highly  by  all  who  held 
to  the  Jewish  covenant  as  a  complete  revelation,  and 
were  equally  reverenced  by  those  who  believed  that 
the  Law  was  imperfect  and  typical  —  the  shadow  of 
that  which  was  to  come. 

We  are  so  accustomed  to  consider  the  prophet  of  the 
Jewish  covenant  as  the  expositor  of  the  Divine  pur- 
pose towards  the  chosen  people  and  the  rest  of  man- 
kind, that  we  are  apt  to  lose  sight  of  his  attitude 
towards  his  own  generation  —  to  forget  that  he  rebuked 
and  counselled  king  and  nation  —  that  he  was  a  states- 
man and  a  jurist,  who  interpreted  the  politics  of  his 
age  according  to  the  law  of  God  and  the  jDermanent 
interests  of  His  people.  The  spirit  of  tliis  law  was 
expounded  by  the  prophet,  with  breadth  and  boldness, 
with    force    and   dignity,  with    exquisite   poetry   and 


THE  JEWISH  PROPHETS.  139 

pathos.  The  prophet  was  the  preacher  of  holiness  and 
righteousness,  of  religion  and  morals ;  for  the  Jewish 
kings  constantly  exhibited  the  traits  of  other  oriental 
sovereigns,  and  the  priests  do  not  appear  to  have  exer- 
cised any  great  social  influence  by  the  mere  virtue 
of  their  office.  It  is  by  the  prophets  and  their  writ- 
ings that  Israel  not  only  maintained  the  purity  of  his 
religion,  but  was  saved  from  sinking  either  into  one  of 
those  races  which  have  been  long  since  extinct,  or  from 
being  degraded  into  a  permanent,  but  a  savage  horde. 
The  word  of  the  Lord  came  to  him,  was  spoken,  and 
endures  for  ever.  To  the  student  of  history  it  is  im- 
possible to  exaggerate  the  influence  Avhich  these  men 
have  exercised  on  the  destiny  of  mankind.  Though 
they  were  guided  by  such  lofty  impulses,  and  such  pro- 
foundly religious  sentiment,  their  life  and  action  is_ 
intensely  real.  They  were  neither  philosophers  nor 
devotees,  but  i^oliticians  of  the  purest  type,  whose  en- 
ergies were  devoted  towards  preserving  the  institutions 
of  a  petty  Syrian  kingdom,  but  wdiose  principles  of 
action  were  those  of  perfect  pohtical  morality,  and 
were  therefore  of  universal  significance.  They  believed 
in  a  public  conscience,  a  public  duty,  a  public  relig- 
ion, and  they  never  failed  to  insist  on  the  obligations 
which  give  society  all  its  force  and  vigor.  God  had 
committed  to  them  a  great  charge,  and  they  dared  not 
be  timid  or  unfaithful. 

History  supplies  us  with  no  parallel  to  the  influence 
which  these  men  wielded.  They  were  the  leaders  of 
opinion  in  a  kingdom  which  was   neither  very  large 


140  PAUL    OF   TARSUS. 

nor  populous,  at  an  epoch  when  their  country  was 
overshadowed  by  powerful  empires,  and  was  the 
highway  of  great  contending  armies.  They  had  to 
preserve  its  independence  by  their  policy.  But  they 
had  a  still  harder  task  to  perform,  that  of  maintain- 
ing the  purity  of  its  religion.  Even  more  dangerous 
than  the  political  forces  which  threatened  Judah,  were 
the  corrupting  influences  which  tended  to  debase  the 
Law  by  their  contact;  for  no  nature-worship  was  more 
gross  than  that  of  Phoenicia,  no  fetish  more  cruel  than 
that  of  Moab  and  Amnion,  and  of  the  other  old  Cana- 
anite  races.  They  had  to  interpret  the  Law  according 
to  its  spiritual  meaning,  to  advocate  a  higher  life  than 
the  corn,  and  wine,  and  oil,  and  honey  of  the  older 
promise;  and  to  set  this  loftier  example  before  the 
State  and  the  Man.  Nor  were  the  external  difficulties 
of  their  position  all  that  they  had  to  contend  with. 
Some  prophets  were  found  who,  like  Hananiah,  aposta- 
tized from  their  calling  ;  men  whose  time-serving  false- 
hood extorted  from  Jeremiah  that  bitter  complaint 
which  contains  in  it  a  summary  of  ages  in  the  world's 
history,  —  The  prophets  prophesy  wickedness,  and  the 
priests  applaud  them,  and  my  people  love  to  have  it  so, 
and  what  will  ye  do  when  the  end  of  these  things 
comes  ? 

These  prophets  were  not  ignorant  enthusiasts,  who 
owed  their  authority  to  mere  self-assertion.  They  were 
trained  to  such  learning  as  the  times  possessed,  in 
certain  recognized  seminaries.  These  institutions  were, 
it  would  seem,  founded  by  Samuel,  —  for  it  is  during 


THE  APOSTLE  AND    THE   PROPHET.      141 

the  age  of  this  Judge  that  the  schools  of  the  propliets 
are  specially  distinguished,  —  and  were  continued 
down  to  the  great  Captivity.  At  the  Restoration,  the 
prophet's  place  was  supplied  by  the  teaching  which  the 
Rabban  gave  his  discij^les.  The  Jews  were  ready  to 
recognize  the  spirit  of  the  older  prophet  in  the  teach- 
ing of  the  Baptist,  and  the  discourses  of  Christ  are  the 
utterances  of  one  who,  trained  as  the  prophets  were 
trained,  surpassed  them  all;  completing  the  sum  of 
Divine  wisdom,  announcing  in  all  their  fulness  the 
counsels  of  God,  and  promising  the  continuance  of 
tlte  Spirit  to  his  disciples. 

As  the  part  of  the  prophet  was  one  of  great  honor 
and  authority,  so  it  was  one  of  peculiar  danger.  Mon- 
arch and  people  were  occasionally  recalled  to  their  duty 
by  the  warnings  of  these  advisers,  but  as  often  turned 
savagely  on  the  unwelcome  or  intrusive  counsellor. 
The  author  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  recounts  the 
sufferings  which  these  patriots  underwent.  Christ, 
with  full  foresight  of  His  own  destiny,  charges  the 
existing  generation  of  the  Jews  with  an  aggregate  of 
that  blood-thirsty  hate  which  prompted  the  death  of 
Abel,  and  consummated  the  slaughter  of  Zecharias,  — 
whose  murder,  says  the  Talmud,  was  committed  during 
the  time  that  Jerusalem  was  besieged  by  the  Chaldeans, 
and  was  mercilessly  avenged  by  Nebuzaradan. 

It  is  the  power,  then,  of  interj^reting  religious  duty 
in  the  various  occasions  of  life,  of  bringing  the  Spirit 
of  God  which  dwells  within  the  believer  to  bear  on 
the  course  of  human  action,  which  St.  Paul  prays  that 


142  PAVL   OF  TARSUS. 

his  Corinthian  disciples  may  possess.  He  ranges  the 
prophet  after  the  apostle  in  the  rank  of  usefulness.  He 
would  have  them  all  obtain,  and  all  use  this  gift  for 
joersonal  guidance  and  mutual  counsel.  Himself  in  the 
fullest  sense  a  prophet,  and  enjoying  abundantly  this 
clear  inward  light,  he  longed  that  all  his  converts 
should  be  equally  advanced  in  spiritual  knowledge  and 
wisdom,  —  should  equally  contribute  towards  the  edifi- 
cation of  the  Church.  He  warns  them  against  secta- 
rian differences,  reminds  them  that  their  allegiance 
cannot  be  divided  or  shared,  and  advises  them  to  aid 
each  other  in  the  great  work  of  wisdom  and  holiness. 

The  time  was  not  come  in  which  this  function  — 
to  be  performed  by  the  members  of  an  obscure  and 
struggling  sect  —  should  be  extended  so  as  to  fill  the 
sphere  in  which  the  ancient  prophets  exercised  their 
great  ministry.  And  when  the  time  did  come,  and  an 
023portunity  was  offered  in  which  Christianity,  having 
interpenetrated  the  whole  life  of  society,  might  con- 
stitute a  Divine  republic,  a  true  civitas  Dei,  a  state  in 
which  profound  religious  energy  should  go  hand-in- 
hand  with  clear  political  sagacity,  the  Christian  world 
was  busied  in  logomachies,  was  ruled  by  monks  and 
ascetics,  by  logicians  and  mystics.  Then  the  Church 
eagerly  comj^leted  a  bargain,  under  the  terms  of  which 
the  successful  joortion  was  emj^owered  to  proscribe  its 
rivals,  provided  only  that  the  whole  force  of  ecclesias- 
tical government  should  ally  itself  with  the  temporary 
expedients  of  a  demoralized  and  decaying  government, 
with  the  degraded  imperialism  of  the  Constantines. 


WORSHIP   OF  THE   CORINTHIANS.  143 

The  worship  in  the  Corinthian  churches  is  strangely 
like  that  of  the  earliest  Quakers.  One  man  had  a 
psalm  to  recite,  another  a  rule  of  conduct  to  announce, 
a  third  some  linguistic  utterance,  a  fourth  some  revela- 
tion,- a  fifth  the  interjjretation  of  some  obscure  passage 
of  Scripture,  or  of  some  mystic  declaration.  To  add  to 
.the  confusion,  the  women  were  as  eager  in  their  con- 
tributions to  this  bewildering  clamor  as  the  men  were. 
Hence  the  Aj30stle  enjoins  silence  in  the  churches  on 
the  women,  as  is  seemly,  and  to  avoid  scandal.  The 
injunction,  it  appears,  was  peculiarly  needed  in  the 
Corinthian  churches,  was  special,  perhaps  temporary. 
Elsewhere,  it  is  clear  that  women  exercised  great  influ- 
ence on  the  discipline  of  the  Church,  and  that  they 
busied  themselves  with  the  spread  of  the  Gospel. 
Priscilla  is  one  of  these ;  so  is  Junia,  whom  Paul  speaks 
of  as  an  apostle ;  also  Tryphena,  Tryphosa,  and  Persis, 
and  probably  Julia,  and  the  sister  of  Nereus,  —  to  quote 
those  names  only  which  are  found  in  the  Epistle  to  the 
Romans.  The  notion  that  the  Apostle  discouraged  the 
services  of  women  on  behalf  of  the  Gospel  is  an  exag- 
gerated inference  from  the  language  of  the  Epistle  to 
the  Corinthians,  and  is  contradicted  by  facts. 

If  the  assemblies  of  the  Corinthian  Christians,  when 
St.  Paul  wrote  with  the  view  of  checking  tliese  dis- 
orders, resembled  those  ecstatic  gatherings  of  the  older 
Quakers,  so  the  religious  exercises  which  he  commends 
resemble  the  decorous  solemnities  which  have  character- 
ized the  meetings  of  these  sectaries,  after  the  enthu- 
siasm of  teachers  like  Fox  was  controlled  by  the  good 


H4  PAUL    OF  TARSUS. 

sense  of  reformers  like  Penn.  There  is  absolutely  no 
hint  given  in  the  epistle  of  any  organized  ministry, 
still  less  of  any  hierarchy  whatsoever.  Every  convert, 
as  far  as  the  text  of  the  letter  informs  ns,  was  on  a 
footing  of  perfect  equality  with  his  neighbor  or  brother 
in  Christ,  was  competent  to  raise  his  voice  or  expound 
in  the  Church.  We  do  not  even  find  a  temporary 
president  of  the  meeting,  such  as  was  set  up  in  the 
church  which  Justin  describes.  The  gifts  of  the  Spirit 
were  vaiious,  and  every  convert  had  some  gift  wliich  lie 
might  employ  for  the  general  good  of  the  Cliurch. 
But  this  silence  as  to  church  government  and  an  offi- 
cial ministry  is  not  peculiar  to  the  Corinthian  epistles. 
Only  one  of  the  epistles  addressed  to  churches  contains 
any  allusion  to  resident  ecclesiastical  officers ;  and  this 
address  to  the  bishops  and  deacons  of  Philippi,  while  it 
has  made  some  persons  suspect  that  the  letter  is  of 
doubtful  authenticity,  has  induced  those  who  contend 
for  its  genuineness  to  assign  it  to  the  latest  period  of 
the  Apostle's  life. 

But  though  the  epistles  to  the  churches  afford  little 
or  no  information  on  the  subject  of  the  Christian  min- 
istry, and  present  a  mass  of  negative  evidence  as  to  the 
appointment  of  a  regular  order,  the.  Apostle  gives  an 
account  of  what  the  office  of  the  Lord's  Supper  Avas, 
and  what  it  ought  to  be.  The  converts  came  together, 
each  bringing  his  food  and  drink  with  him,  though 
not,  it  would  seem,  with  the  intention  of  giving  it  to  a 
common  fund.  Some  were  hungry,  some  indulged  in 
excess ;  the  rich  enjoyed  themselves,  the  poor  were  put 


CHURCH  DISCIPLINE   AT  CORINTH.         145 

to  shame  by  their  inability  to  vie  with  this  profusion 
and  ostentation.  It  would  appear  that  the  Corinthians 
imagined,  pro\dded  they  took  their  meal  in  the  same 
building,  that  they  were  performing  the  rite  which  was 
commanded  to  believers  as  a  solemn  commemoration 
of  Christ's  death.  St.  Paul  therefore  narrates  the  cir- 
cumstances under  which  the  rite  was  instituted,  enjoins 
its  observance  on  Christians,  shows  the  danger  of  a 
l^rofane  misinterpretation  of  it,  and  the  consequences 
which  have  already  ensued  from  careless  malpractice, 
inculcates  the  rule  that  it  is  a  feast  in  which  all  wor- 
shippers are  equal,  and  promises  to  give  further  details 
on  his  arrival. 

The  First  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians  gives  some  in- 
sight into  the  discipline  of  the  Church.  A  professed 
believer  had  married  his  step-mother,  and  this,  apjoar- 
ently,  during  his  father's  lifetime.  Such  a  marriage 
was  discreditable  among  the  heathen.  Under  certain 
circumstances,  it  was,  despite  the  prohibition  in  Levit- 
icus, permitted  among  the  Jews,  in  consequence  of 
certain  decisions  in  the  Talmud,  which  professed  to 
interpret  cases  like  those  of  Abraham  and  Sarah, 
Amnon  and  Tamar,  Adonijah  and  Abishag,  where  mar- 
riages between  persons  who  were  within  close  relations 
of  consanguinity  or  affinity  were  either  contracted  or 
contemplated.  The  gloss  of  these  doctors  was,  that  in 
case  the  wife  was  of  heathen  parentage  on  the  mother's 
side,  the  relationship  need  not  be  a  bar.  It  has  been 
suggested  that  the  offender  was  a  Jew,  who  had  taken 
advantage  of  this  opinion  of  the  Jewish  doctors,  and 
7  J 


146  PAUL   OF  TARSUS. 

had  thereupon  debauched  and  married  his  step-mother. 
It  seems  to  me  more  likely  that  the  wife  had  taken 
advantage  of  the  easy  law  of  divorce  which  prevailed 
among  the  Romans  (for  Corinth  was  a  Roman  colony), 
and  had  thus  contracted  a  marriage  which  the  Roman 
custom  branded  as  incestuous,  but  for  which,  in  so 
licentious  a  place  as  Corinth  was,  there  was  probably  no 
punishment. 

Apart  from  the  consideration  of  its  immorality,  the 
act  was  dangerous  to  the  reputation  of  the  Church. 
The  early  Christians  had  every  interest  to  maintain  a 
character  for  purity,  since  scandal  would  be  sure  to  be 
busy  with  them,  however  careful  they  were,  if  it  could 
only  catch  at  any  fact.  St.  Paul  therefore  commands 
instant  and  severe  measures.  They  are  to  suspend  the 
culprit  immediately,  in  the  name  of  Christ,  and  by  His 
power,  from  fellowship  with  the  Church.  They  are  to 
give  him  over  to  Satan,  —  the  Apostle  using  this  phrase 
familiar  to  those  who  knew  the  histories  of  Job  and 
Ahab,  to  imply  that  the  offender  should  suffer  some 
severe  bodily  ailment,  as  a  punishment  and  corrective 
for  his  offence.  The  object  of  the  chastisement  was  not 
the  destruction  of  the  -man,  but  the  repentance  of  a 
sinner.  We  learn  that  the  Church  was  roused  to 
action  by  the  Apostle's  command,  that  it  cleared  itself 
of  all  complicity  in  the  scandal,  that  it  put  public  cen- 
sure on  the  offender,  that  the  offence  was  repented  of, 
and  that  it  was  forgiven. 

The  Founder  of  Christianity  was  reproached  with 
His  lenity  to  offenders,  was  blamed  for  the  readiness 


CHRISTIANITY  AND   PENITENTS,  147 

with  which  He  welcomed  repentant  sinners.  A  scheme 
of  religion  which  inculcated  the  doctrine  of  God's  love, 
gentleness,  long-suffering,  which  insisted  on  the  impos- 
sibility of  man's  fulfilling  all  the  requirements  of  a 
precise  and  searching  law,  and  which  taught  that  man 
was  reconciled  to  God  through  the  great  sacrifice  of 
Christ,  could  not  be  severe  to  those  who  sorrow  over 
their  sin,  —  could  not  but  welcome  back  those  who, 
roused  by  an  accusing  conscience,  seek  forgiveness  and 
l^eace.  If  the  Gospel  declares  all  men  to  need  salva- 
tion, if  it  warns  men  of  the  consequences  which  ensue 
to  those  who  are  impenitent,  and  even  implies  that  a 
sharp  and  purifying  fire  is  needed  for  them  who  have 
lived  sensuously,  though  not  sinfully,  it  is  boundless  in 
its  charity  to  those  who  seek  fbrgiveness.  To  grant 
this  forgiveness  is  the  very  essence  of  the  Christian 
religion ;  to  refuse  it  is  to  be  implacable,  and  therefore 
unforgiven ;  to  inflict  irrevocable  punishment  is  to  usurp 
the  functions  of  God ;  to  desire  that  such  punishment 
should  be  inflicted  is  to  be  of  a  spirit  of  which  no  man 
should  knowingly  be,  to  league  one's  self  with  the  accu- 
ser and  destroyer.  The  scheme  of  Christianity  admits 
the  great  value  of  human  life,  but  it  insists  on  the  trans- 
cendent value  of  the  human  soul. 

The  generosity  with  which  Christianity  treated  re- 
pented sin  in  primitive  times  has  been  permanently 
characteristic  of  its  later  discipline.  It  has  even  gone 
beyond  the  ancient  rule,  and  has  all  but  ignored  disci- 
pline itself.  But,  however  lax  it  has  been  in  dealing 
with  the  practice  of  its  followers,  it  has  fi'om  time  to 


148  PAUL   OF  TABS  US. 

time  been  implacably  severe  on  their  opinions.  It  has 
dealt  with  morals  and  belief  respectively  as  the  Index 
dealt  with  Lucian,  —  permitted  the  publication  of  all 
that  is  gross,  suppressed  every  thing  which  it  consid- 
ered sceptical.  It  has,  in  the  hands  of  those  who  pre- 
tended to  be  its  fathers  and  doctors,  committed  the 
greatest  cruelties  which  have  ever  polluted  the  world. 
The  dark  fears  of  tyrants  have  never  devised  such  tor- 
ments for  their  victims  as  the  disciples  of  Christ  have 
perpetrated,  —  and  that  without  the  tyrant's  plea,  with- 
out a  word  of  justification  from  the  teaching  of  Him 
whom  they  profess  to  ad  Ore,  —  in  the  face,  even  of  His 
absolute  prohibition.  They  Avho^  professed  to  be  the 
stewards  of  God's  mercy  and  grace,  developed  an  in- 
sane fanaticism  out  of  the  fears  which  they  stimulated, 
and  led  generations  of  mankind  to  believe  that  they 
were  vindicating  God's  honor  by  permitting,  encour- 
aging, assisting  a  dark  and  merciless  hatred  against 
those  who  Avere  suspected  of  heresy. 

The  Church  of  the  earliest  ages  is  not  perfectly  free 
from  this  attempt  to  usurp  the  functions  of  the  Divine 
Judge.  We  shall  see  that  the  labors  of  Paul  were 
seriously  hindered  by  the  narrowness  of  those  who 
professed  the  faith  of  Christ ;  that  the  last  days  of  his 
life  w^ere  embittered  by  the  apostasy  of  those  who 
owed  their  knowledge  of  the  Gospel  to  his  unwearied 
energy ;  that  for  a  time  he  was  follow^ed  by  angry  cal- 
umnies. But  the  fervid  zeal  of  the  early  Church  was 
ready  to  welcome  all  who  accepted  the  name,  and 
strove  to  live  the  life  of  the  Christian.     It  had  not  yet 


MEATS    OFFERED    TO  IDOLS.  149 

attempted  those  definitions  which  bewildered  and  rent 
it.  It  was  busied  with  the  belief  that  the  work  of  all 
religion  is  to  effect  the  association  of  man's  soul  with 
the  undoubted  Presence  of  God.  It  saw  that  the  space 
between  God  and  man,  which  might  be  infinitely  small, 
and  might  be  infinitely  great,  could  be  filled  up  by  the 
person  of  Christ  —  a  Humanity  of  perfect  love,  of  un- 
wearying providence,  of  such  attractiveness  that  it 
occupies  every  affection,  sanctifies  every  emotion,  unites 
all  men  by  a  common  bond,  but  is,  withal,  the  power, 
the  glory,  the  wisdom  of  God  —  the  exemplar  of  all 
creation,  the  strength  by  which  every  thing  is  made,  — 
one  with  God  and  one  with  man,  —  the  one  true  Priest 
and  Mediator.  To  accept  His  mediation  is  to  satisfy 
man's  most  earnest  longings  —  to  guarantee  the  law  of 
liberty,  or,  in  modern  language,  the  highest  and  purest 
civilization. 

The  Church  at  Corinth  put  a  question  of  conscience 
to  the  Apostle.  The  worship  of  Greece  and  Kome 
involved  the  offering  of  sacrifices.  The  same  nations 
practised  augury  by  inspecting  the  viscera  of  slaugh- 
tered animals,  these  animals  being  the  substitutes  for  a 
more  ancient  rite,  which  was  common  in  Mexico  at  the 
time  of  Cortez,  where  human  sacrifices  wei'e  offered 
for  similar  ends,  the  body  of  the  victim  being  after- 
wards disposed  of  in  the  same  way.  Having  served 
the  purpose  of  intercession  or  vaticination,  the  car- 
casses of  these  animals  were  sent  to  the  butcher's 
shop.  It  is  probable  that  by  far  the  largest  portion,  if 
not  the  whole,  of  the  meat  exposed  for  sale  had  been 


150  PAUL    OF   TARSUS. 

previously  employed  for  these  sacerdotal  objects,  and 
that  a  conscientious  refusal  to  purchase  any  of  that 
which  had  been  offered  to  idols  would  be  equivalent  to 
abjuring  the  use  of  flesh  altogether.  What  is  to  be 
done  in  such  an  emergency?  Can  we  purchase  such 
food? 

To  a  person  whose  early  training  led  him  to  look 
with  horror  on  any  ceremonial  defilement,  however 
little  it  was  coupled  with  a  disposition  to  offend  against 
the  Law,  the  case  was  one  which  must  have  been  in- 
stantly answered  in  the  negative.  The  Jews  were 
excessively  strict  in  seeing  every  condition  of  ceremo- 
nial cleanliness  satisfied  in  the  preparation  of  all  ani- 
mal food,  and  would  certainly  have  rejected  this  kind 
of  flesh.  But  the  Apostle  thought  differently,  now  at 
any  rate.  The  idol  is  absolutely  nothing.  There  is 
but  one  God,  or,  in  case  people  believe  there  are  powers 
in  heaven  or  on  earth,  to  us  at  least  there  is  but  One, 
who  is  the  author  of  all,  and  to  whom  we  revert,  and 
one  Christ,  who  is  the  Type  of  all,  and  by  whom  we 
subsist.  They  who  really  know  and  understand  these 
facts  have  no  need  to  find  any  difficulty  in  the  case ;  or, 
as  he  subsequently  tells  the  Romans,  there  is  nothing 
unclean  in  itself;  or,  as  logicians  say,  there  is  no  objec- 
tive impurity  in  any  kind  of  meat.  The  uncleanness 
of  food  is  a  subjective  impression. 

In  a  later  part  of  the  epistle,  the  Apostle,  after  one 
of  his  characteristic  parentheses,  reverts  to  the  case  of 
casuistry  which  has  been  submitted  to  him.  He  is 
reminded  of  it  by  having  alluded  to  the  community  of 


PAUL'S   COUNSEL  ABOUT  MEATS.  151 

act,  thought,  and  spirit,  which  are  involved  in  the  cel- 
ebration of  the  Lord's  Supper.  He  compares  it  to  that 
fellowship  in  the  sacrifice,  which  those  who  partake  of 
the  flesh  offered  at  the  sacrifice  must  needs  reciprocate. 
And  then  comes  before  his  mind  the  analogy  which  is 
presented  by  participation  in  flesh  previously  offered 
to  idols.  To  participate  in  the  sacrifice  is  devil-wor- 
ship, and  cannot  be  thought  of.  To  imagine  that  the 
religious  feast  can  be  conjoined  with  an  idolatrous  sym- 
posium, a  heathen  revel,  is  to  profane  it,  and  cannot  be 
endured. 

The  rule  of  life  is,  however,  clear.  What  is  lawful 
to  an  individual,  and  what  is  exjDcdient  or  advantageous 
to  a  society  are  not  always  identical,  and  the  Christian 
is  bound  to  consider  his  neighbor's  good.  If  you,  who 
know  that  the  act  of  idolatrous  sacrifice  is  a  mere 
farce,  see  meat  exposed  for  sale,  buy  it  without  question 
or  comment.  If  you  are  invited  to  the  house  of  a  man 
who  is  not  a  Christian,  and  you  care  to  go,  do  so,  and 
eat  of  any  dish  set  before  you,  without  question  or 
comment.  But  if  you  are  expressly  informed  that  the 
meat  has  been  sacrificed,  avoid  it  for  your  own  sake 
and  that  of  the  person  who  informs  you.  Better  deny 
yourself  than  offend  those  for  whom  Christ  died.  Give 
no  cause  of  scandal  to  Jew,  Greek,  or  the  Church  of 
God.  Take  my  example,  who  was  a  Jew  to  the  Jews, 
and  a  Greek  to  the  Greeks,  in  order  to  win  them  over. 
The  example  is  that  of  Christ  himself,  who  could  not 
countenance  intolerance  of  race  or  station  —  rebuking 
sin  in  all,  encouraging  what  was  hopeful  in  all. 


152  PAUL    OF  TARSUS. 

Whether  this  liberty  which  the  Apostle  advocated 
was  abused,  or- they  who  censured  his  system  of  gener- 
ous interpi*etation  were  offended  at  such  counsel,  is  not 
clear.  But  the  author  of  the  Apocalypse  complains 
that  the  converts  in  the  Asiatic  churches  eat  things 
offered  to  idols,  and  that  in  Thyatira,  the  church  lis- 
tened to  the  woman  Jezebel  who  claims  to  be  a  proph- 
etess, and  dares  to  counsel  this  practice.  It  is  difficult 
to  avoid  the  impression  that  part  of  the  vision  in  Pat- 
mos  was  directed  against  the  liberty  which  Paul  de- 
manded, though  he  gave  counsel  as  to  the  limits  of  that 
liberty.  It  does  not  necessarily  follow,  that  the  writer 
of  the  vision  was  aware  of  the  reasons  which  induced 
Paul  to  decide  as  he  did,  or  of  the  cautions  with  which 
he  surrounded  his  decision.  But  it  was  very  hard  to 
wean  men  from  the  traditions  of  the  older  faith,  —  to 
induce  them  to  believe  that  a  ritual  which  was  merely 
symbolical  was  not  of  universal  and  permanent  obliga- 
tion. It  is  hardest  of  all  to  advise  successfully,  that 
the  spirit  of  a  law  should  be  discovered,  and  its  letter 
interpreted  by  such  a  spirit.  It  may  be  added  that 
Justin  Martyi'  comments  unfavorably  on  those  who  giA^e 
permission  to  eat  the  flesh  of  heathen  sacrifices. 

If  the  Apostle  granted  liberty  in  this  direction,  he 
refused  it  to  those  who  would  thrust  the  Jewish  polity 
into  the  Christian  Church.  He  hears  that  the  Gala- 
tians  are  obser\dng  days,  months,  seasons,  years;  the 
Sabbath  of  the  Jews,  the  new  moons,  the  stated  feasts, 
the  times  of  the  Jewish  Law.  He  dreads  that  his 
labor  may  have  been  in  vain,  when   men  who   have 


THE   SABBATH  AND   ALMS-QIVINO.         153 

learned  God's  will,  and,  better  still,  were  accepted  by 
Him,  return  to  such  poor  and  contemptible  observ- 
ances. For  Sabbatarian  strictness  the  Apostle  has  no 
respect  whatever.  He  tells  the  Romans  that  he  is  in- 
different to  the  recognition  of  any  such  day.  But  when 
it  is  made  obligatory  by  reactionary  teachers,  he  even 
denounces  the  observance  of  it  totally.  The  curious 
fancy  which  has  intruded  into  some  Christian  societies 
a  rigorous  observance  of  Sunday,  and  which  has  trans- 
ferred to  it  the  extreme  strictness  of  the  Jewish  Sab- 
bath, was  not  only  not  countenanced  by  St.  Paul,  but 
spoken  of  as  a  matter  of  utter  indifference,  except 
when  it  is  intended  to  suo-oest  allegiance  to  the  Jewish 
code.  Then  it  was  to  be  repudiated  as  delusive  and 
dangerous.  Even  when  that  code  was  imperative,  the 
Master  had  taught  that  the  Sabbath  had  a  purely  hu- 
man purpose ;  it  could  not  be  endured  that  prejudice 
should  exalt  it  into  a  stringent  obligation  of  religion. 

The  first  day  of  the  week  had  already  been  recog- 
nized as  a  convenient  occasion  for  common  prayer  and 
mutual  exhortation.  According  to  Josephus,  the  days 
of  the  Jewish  week  were  known  over  the  civilized 
world;  and  the  reason  why  Sunday  was  selected  for 
the  purposes  of  devotion  is  given  by  Justin.  It  was 
the  day  of  the  resurrection,  and  was  thence  called  the 
Lord's  day.  St.  Paul  directs  that  on  this  day  each 
man  should  lay  up  that  which  he  can  spare  for  the 
necessities  of  the  poorer  brethren,  and  observes  that  he 
gave  the  same  direction  to  the  Galatian  churches.     The 

wholesome  and  purifying  custom  of  systematic  charity 

7* 


154  PAUL    OF   TABS  US. 

characterized  the  Jewish  synagogue,  and  was  incul- 
cated on  the  Christian  communities.  When  men  are 
taught  to  feel  pity  for  j^overty,  distress,  and  sickness, 
they  are  insensibly  schooled  into  that  duty  of  forgiving 
injuries  which  Christianity  has  made  an  article  of 
foith. 

The  Apostle  insists  that  he  is  justified  in  drawing  on 
this  fund,  or  some  similar  resource,  for  the  exceptional 
supply  of  his  own  personal  necessities.  Occasionally 
he  accepted  the  spontaneous  assistance  of  his  converts, 
and  particularizes  some  churches  which  had  been  eager 
to  supply  his  wants.  But  his  delicacy  of  feeling,  his 
honest  pride  in  the  perfect  disinterestedness  of  his  mis- 
sionary work,  led  him  to  dispense  generally  with  such 
acknowledgments  of  his  services.  He  abhorred  the 
thought  of  making  the  Word  of  God  a  trade  —  of 
huckstering  over  the  price  at  which  his  office  should  be 
compensated.  A  rare  self-abandonment !  It  is  as  diffi- 
cult to  imitate  the  self-denial  of  an  Apostle,  as  it  is  to 
achieve  his  vigor  and  success. 

Paul  and  Barnabas  j^ut  no  charge  on  the  churches, 
but  the  other  Apostles  did.  Nay,  they  travelled  in 
company  with  their  wives,  the  Apostle  specially  desig- 
nating the  brethren  of  the  Lord  and  Peter  as  having 
used  this  privilege.  An  early  legend  represents  the 
wife  of  Peter  as  being  led  to  death,  and  as  encouraged 
by  him  to  persevere.  It  is  curious  and  instructive  that 
this  disclaimer  of  the  Apostle,  and  contrast  of  his  habit 
with  the  thoroughly  lawful  practice  of  the  other  Apos- 
tles, should  inform  us  of  the  fact  that  the  enforced  eel- 


EAELT  CHURCH  GOVERNMENT.  155 

ibacy  of  Christian  ministers  has  no  warranty  in  the 
conduct  of  the  Apostles,  and  that  the  contrary  custom 
is  sustained  by  their  example.  But  the  time  was  not 
come  yet  in  which  worldly  policy  would  recommend 
a  3Ianich»an  tenet  as  a  part  of  ecclesiastical  discipline. 
The  earlier  epistles  of  St.  Paul  supply  us  with  no 
information  as  to  the  form  of  church  government 
adopted  by  primitive  Christianity.  It  probably  varied  ; 
its  organization  was  not  settled,  nor  was  it  important 
that  it  should  be  settled.  Had  there  been  any  perma- 
nent, or  even  regular  officers  in  the  Corinthian  church, 
it  is  impossible  but  that  the  Apostle  should  have  made 
some  reference  to  them.  The  Corinthians  do  not  seem 
even  to  have  established  the  diaconate ;  for  the  contri- 
bution which  each  is  expected  to  make  towards  a  gen- 
eral collection  is  not  to  be  paid  to  some  local  treasurer, 
but  is  to  be  stored  up  in  the  house  of  the  giver  until 
the  Apostle's  arrival.  Had  the  Apostle  considered  it 
important  that  the  Corinthians  should  be  supplied  with 
a  settled  ministry,  he  would  have  ordained  such  officers 
at  his  pre™us  visit,  or  in  his  first  letter  to  them,  which 
has  perished,  or  would  have  directed  them  to  provide 
themselves  with  proper  officials  from  their  own  body. 
The  disorders  which  he  wishes  to  check —  and  the  cor- 
rection of  which  is  the  principal  motive  for  writing  the 
epistle  —  are  not  remedied  by  the  establishment  of  a 
hierarchy,  by  providing  a  central  authority  to  which 
disputes  could  be  referred ;  and  the  same  fact  may  be 
inferred  negatively  as  to  the  other  churches  whom  he 
addresses,  with  the  exception  of  that  at  Philippi.     St. 


156  PAUL  OF   TABS  US. 

Paul  must  have  been  totally  indiiferent  as  to  forms  of 
church  government,  and  would  have  rebuked  any  intol- 
erance which  might  prescribe  a  uniform  rule  in  all  the 
churches. 

With  the  exception  of  the  deacon's  office,  the  origin 
of  which  is  narrated  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  all 
that  we  know  of  ecclesiastical  officers  is  obtained  from 
the  writings  attributed  to  Paul.  In  his  letters  to  Timo- 
thy, the  Apostle  instructs  his  favorite  disciple  in  the 
qualifications  which  must  be  sought  for  in  a  bishoj)  or 
overseer.  These  do  not  materially  differ  from  those  of 
a  deacon.  In  the  letter  to  Titus,  the  bishop  and  the 
elder  or  presbyter  are  identified.  In  the  First  Epistle 
of  Peter,  the  word  bishop  is  ajjplied  to  Christ,  and  the. 
Apostle  describes  himself  as  an  elder  or  presbyter.  The 
"ano-el"  or  messensfer  of  the  seven  churches  in  the 
Revelation  has  been  supposed,  somewhat  superfluously, 
to  be  the  bishop,  for  it  is  difficult  to  see  how  a  person- 
age whose  name  implies  departure  from  a  particular 
locality  should  be  identified  Avith  the  resident  gov- 
ernor of  the  Church. 

There  is  not  the  slightest  trace  of  any  hierarchy  in 
the  New  Testament,  unless,  indeed,  it  be  discovered  in 
the  Apostolic  College  at  Jerusalem,  whose  paramount 
authority  St.  Paul  distinctly  repudiated.  The  Church 
was  a  republic  of  federal  congregations,  bound  together 
by  no  administrative  tie,  though  closely  united  by  a 
common  faith  and  a  common  charity.  Nor  is  any 
Apostle  tied  to  a  spot.  Titus  is  sent  to  ordain  elders  in 
Crete ;  is  spoken  of,  therefore,  as  its  first  bishop,  but  in 


OBIOIN  OF  EPISCOPACY.  157 

the  Second  Epistle  to  Timothy  he  has  gone  to  Dalma- 
tia.  Timothy  is  left  at  Ephesus  in  the  first  epistle,  but 
is  certainly  not  there  at  the  date  of  the  second,  for  the 
Apostle  informs  him  that  he  has  sent  Tychicus  thither. 
Where  Timothy  was  does  not  appear,  but  he  was  to 
call  at  Troas  on  his  journey  to  Paul,  then  in  imminent 
peril  at  Rome,  where,  as  it  seems  from  the  Epistle 
to  the  Hebrews,  the  disciple  narrowly  escaped  his 
teacher's  fate.  It  is  an  anachronism  to  speak  of  an 
Apostolic  bishop,  perhaps  an  anomaly.  That  this  offi- 
cer's appointment  became  general  at  an  early  period  of 
Church  history  was  due  to  causes  which  had  no  exist- 
ence, or  only  an  inchoate  existence  in  the  Apostolic 
age. 

The  silence  of  the  New  Testament  on  ritual  and 
Church  government  contrasts  markedly  with  the  energy 
with  which  these  accidents  of  later  ecclesiastical  history 
have  been  assailed  and  defended.  It  can  be  shown  that 
the  three  ecclesiastical  offices  were  all  but  universally 
recognized  by  the  middle  of  the  third  century,  —  that 
the  function  of  ordinary  bishops  was  conferred  by 
bishops  only,  that  of  presbyters  by  bishops  and  presby- 
ters, while  a  less  marked  solemnity  accompanied  the 
appointment  of  deacons.  According  to  Selden,  how- 
ever, who  quotes  St.  Jerome,  the  bishops  of  Alexandria 
were  elected  and  consecrated  by  the  presbyters  till  the 
Patriarchate  of  Alexander,  in  the  fourth  century.  But 
the  ancient  missionary  did  not  delay  his  labors  till  he 
had  received  a  bishop's  license.  The  best  claim  to 
antiquity  and  independence,  which  can  be  put  forward 


158  PAUL   OF  TARSUS. 

on  behalf  of  the  ancient  Iiish  and  Gaelic  Churches,  lies 
in  the  fact  that  St.  Patrick  appears  to  have  received  no 
ordination  whatever,  and  that  St.  Columba  was  singu- 
larly independent  of  episcopal  control. 

It  is  not  remarkable  that  authority,  which  is  natu- 
rally apt  to  identify  a  fact  with  the  form  in  which  it  is 
contained,  or  by  which  it  is  disguised,  should,  after  the 
custom  of  ej^iscopal  government  became  universal,  look 
on  the  advocacy  of  an  alternative  to  such  a  form  as  dis- 
affection, treason,  or  heresy.  But,  unless  it  can  be 
shown  that  the  form  in  question  is  absolutely  essential 
to  the  maintenance  of  order,  and  the  security  of  free- 
dom, its  expediency  is  always  open  to  debate.  The 
policy  of  episcopal  government  has  been  challenged, 
partly  on  account  of  the  excessive  zeal  which  its  sup- 
porters have  manifested  in  claiming  for  it  a  Divine 
authority,  partly  because  it  has  been  sustained  by  force 
against  reluctant  disputants.  Now,  in  ecclesiastical  as 
in  civil  government,  a  form  of  administration  which 
resents  criticism  on  its  intrinsic  authority  is  self- 
condemned;  that  which  strives  to  suppress  all  ojiinion 
as  to  its  validity,  or  value,  is  sure  to  provoke,  active 
hostility.  Had  the  principle  of  episcopacy  never 
affected  to  rest  on  Divine  right,  but  had  been  content 
to  found  its  claims  on  the  obvious  convenience  of  a 
graduated  municij^al  system,  it  would  have  probably 
been  accepted  as  the  best  way  in  which  religious 
thought  can  be  encouraged  and  tested,  religious  action 
assisted  and  guided.  But  its  advocates  attempted  to 
make  its  acceptance  a  condition  of  Christian  brother- 


NO  EARLY    CLERICAL  ORDER.  159 

hood;  to  force  its  establishment  on  unwilling  minds, 
and  even  to  inflict  the  worst  atrocities  of  civil  war  on 
those  sectaries  who  were  dissatisfied  with  its  regimen. 
It  is  said  that  the  establishment  of  a  clerical  order, 
and,  in  particular,  of  a  permanent  chief  officer  who 
should  govern  the  Church  in  a  town  or  district,  was 
founded  on  a  necessity  for  creating  some  organization 
against  heretics  and  schismatics.  The  theory  is  plausi- 
ble, but  of  doubtful  proof  It  is  quite  possible  that, 
had  St.  Paul  created  some  such  officers  in  Ancyra, 
Ephesus,  Corinth,  his  authority  would  have  been  more 
respected,  and  the  churches  of  Galatia,  Asia  Minor,  and 
Greece  would  have  been  spared  some  follies  and  scan- 
dals. But  it  was  not  the  mission  of  the  Apostle  to 
organize  a  society,  but  to  teach  a  religion.  He  did  not 
fall  into  the  common  error  of  reformers  and  mission- 
aries-:—that  of  setting  up  a  precise  rule  of  church 
government,  for  he  knew  well  enough  that  such  artifi- 
cial systems  are  in  the  end  constantly  fatal  to  the  move- 
ment which  they  are  intended  to  further.  The  x\postle 
foresaw  that  his  work  would  be,  to  a  great  degree, 
undone  by  intrusive  tenets.  Before  his  life  was  over, 
he  witnessed  more  than  once  the  partial  or  complete 
apostasy  of  churches  which  he  had  founded,  and  of 
disciples  whom  he  had  taught.  But  with  the  excep- 
tion of  a  few,  and  these  very  general,  directions  to 
Timothy  and  Titus,  he  provides  no  ecclesiastical  magis- 
tracy which  should  meet  these  imminent  mischiefs.  It 
cannot  but  be  the  case  that  he  put  no  reliance  in  those 
adventitious  aids  to  orthodoxy.     It  is  certain,  if  he  had 


158  PAUL    OF  TARSUS. 

on  behalf  of  the  ancient  Iiish  and  Gaelic  Churches,  lies 
in  the  fact  that  St.  Patrick  appears  to  have  received  no 
ordination  Avhatever,  and  that  St.  Columba  was  singu- 
larly independent  of  episcopal  control. 

It  is  not  remarkable  that  authority,  which  is  natu- 
rally apt  to  identify  a  fact  with  the  form  in  which  it  is 
contained,  or  by  which  it  is  disguised,  should,  after  the 
custom  of  episcopal  government  became  universal,  look 
on  the  advocacy  of  an  alternative  to  such  a  form  as  dis- 
affection, treason,  or  heresy.  But,  unless  it  can  be 
shown  that  the  form  in  question  is  absolutely  essential 
to  the  maintenance  of  order,  and  the  security  of  free- 
dom, its  expediency  is  always  open  to  debate.  The 
policy  of  episcopal  government  has  been  challenged, 
partly  on  account  of  the  excessive  zeal  which  its  sup- 
porters have  manifested  in  claiming  for  it  a  Divine 
authority,  partly  because  it  has  been  sustained  by  force 
against  reluctant  disputants.  Now,  in  ecclesiastical  as 
in  civil  government,  a  form  of  administration  which 
resents  criticism  on  its  intrinsic  authority  is  self- 
condemned;  that  which  strives  to  suppress  all  opinion 
as  to  its  validity,  or  value,  is  sure  to  provoke,  active 
hostility.  Had  the  principle  of  episcopacy  never 
affected  to  rest  on  Divine  right,  but  had  been  content 
to  found  its  claims  on  the  obvious  convenience  of  a 
graduated  municipal  system,  it  would  have  probably 
been  accepted  as  the  best  way  in  which  religious 
thought  can  be  encouraged  and  tested,  religious  action 
assisted  and  guided.  But  its  advocates  attempted  to 
make  its  acceptance  a  condition  of  Christian  brother- 


NO   EARLY    CLERICAL  ORDER.  159 

hood;  to  force  its  establishment  on  nnwiUing  mmcls, 
and  even  to  inflict  the  worst  atrocities  of  civil  war  on 
those  sectaries  who  were  dissatisfied  with  its  regimen. 
It  is  said  that  the  establishment  of  a  clerical  order, 
and,  in  particular,  of  a  permanent  chief  officer  who 
should  govern  the  Church  in  a  town  or  district,  was 
founded  on  a  necessity  for  creating  some  organization 
against  heretics  and  schismatics.  The  theory  is  plausi- 
ble, but  of  doubtful  proof.  It  is  quite  possible  that, 
had  St.  Paul  created  some  such  officers  in  Ancyra, 
Ephesus,  Corinth,  his  authority  would  have  been  more 
respected,  and  the  churches  of  Galatia,  Asia  Minor,  and 
Greece  would  have  been  spared  some  follies  and  scan- 
dals. But  it  was  not  the  mission  of  the  Apostle  to 
organize  a  society,  but  to  teach  a  religion.  He  did  not 
fall  into  the  common  error  of  reformers  and  mission- 
aries t— that  of  setting  up  a  precise  rule  of  church 
government,  for  he  knew  well  enough  that  such  artifi- 
cial systems  are  in  the  end  constantly  fatal  to  the  move- 
ment which  they  are  intended  to  further.  The  Apostle 
foresaw  that  his  work  would  be,  to  a  great  degree, 
undone  by  intrusive  tenets.  Before  his  life  was  over, 
he  witnessed  more  than  once  the  partial  or  complete 
apostasy  of  churches  which  he  had  founded,  and  of 
disciples  whom  he  had  taught.  But  with  the  excep- 
tion of  a  few,  and  these  very  general,  directions  to 
Timothy  and  Titus,  he  provides  no  ecclesiastical  magis- 
tracy which  should  meet  these  imminent  mischiefs.  It 
cannot  but  be  the  case  that  he  put  no  reliance  in  those 
adventitious  aids  to  orthodoxy.     It  is  certain,  if  he  had 


160  PAUL    OF   TARSUS. 

no  conficlence  in  them,  that  he  was  guided  by  his  cus- 
tomary prescience.  The  schisms,  heresies,  religious 
parties,  of  the  second  and  third  century  were  innu- 
merable. It  was  only  when  State  and  Church  were 
allied  that  outward  uniformity  was  achieved  under 
the  mechanism  of  an  episcopal  system. 

Apart  from  the  natural  tendency  to  organization 
which  a  common  belief  and  a  common  practice  engen- 
der, the  social  habits  of  the  early  Church  rendered 
some  foiTQ  of  church  polity  necessary,  and  even  sponta- 
neous. The  primitive  Church  of  Jerusalem  was  poor. 
It  adopted  a  strict  communism,  an  ascetic,  contempla- 
tive life.  In  time,  when  the  resources  which  its  first 
disciples  threw  into  the  common  fund  were  exhausted, 
it  lived  on  the  alms  of  the  faithful,  adopting  finally 
the  custom  of  the  Jewish  hierarchy,  who  levied  first- 
fruits  on  their  disj^ersed  brethren.  Hence  the  early 
necessity  which  arose  for  establishing  a  treasury,  with 
ofiicers  who  should  be  appointed  to  distribute  the  funds, 
and  who  should  obviate  the  charge  of  favoritism.  These, 
we  are  expressly  told,  were  the  motives  for  establishing 
the  diaconate.  In  Nablous  the  duty  of  distributing  the 
common  fund  was  intrusted  to  the  president. 

St.  Paul  was  far  too  wise  to  attempt  the  introduction 
of  this  communistic  system  among  the  Gentile  con- 
verts. .  He  knew  well  enough  that  such  a  scheme 
would  be  fatal  to  energy,  would  be  fatal  to  the  Church. 
For  the  sake  of  peace,  and  as  part  of  his  compromise 
with  the  Judaizing  party,  he  recognized  their  claim, 
that  the  Gentiles  should  remember  the  poor,  adding, 


DEACONS  AND   DEACONESSES.  161 

with  some  irony,  that  he  was  ready  enough  to  do  so. 
Nor  did  he  neglect  to  carry  out  this  promise,  for  he 
was  engaged  in  this  work  of  charity,  or  at  least  gener- 
osity, when  the  rabble  set  on  him  in  the  temple  at 
Jerusalem.  He  had  no  objection  to  assist  the  poverty 
of  those  pious  ascetics,  of  putting  their  claims  before  his 
converts,  though  he  shrunk  from  taking  any  compensa- 
tion for  his  own  services. 

In  course  of  time,  it  was  inevitable  that  distress 
should  arise  within  these  Gentile  churches,  and  it  was 
notoriously  tlie  duty  of  Christian  men  to  relieve  the 
wants  of  their  brethren,  and  indeed  of  all  men.  The 
profound  sense  of  this  generous  obligation  was  one  of 
the  best  gifts  which  Judaism  bestowed  on  Christianity. 
The  establishment,  then,  of  officers  who  should  collect 
the  alms  of  the  richer,  and  assist  the  wants  of  the 
poorer  brethren  was  necessary.  The  office  was  not 
limited  to  the  male  sex,  even  when  the  poorer  congre- 
gation asked  the  aid  of  some  rich  and  distant  church. 
Phoebe,  the  deaconess  of  Cenchrea,  gets  an  introduction 
from  St.  Paul  to  the  churches  at  Rome,  just  as  a  colo- 
nial missionary  might  be  introduced  to  the  benevolence 
of  a  wealthy  English  congregation.  The  text  implies 
that  her  mission  was  an  application  for  some  pecuniary 
assistance.  It  is  to  be  regretted  that  Pliny,  in  his 
celebrated  letter  to  Trajan,  admits  that  he  felt  it  expe- 
dient to  put  two  of  these  pious  women  to  the  torture, 
in  order  to  extract  the  truth  from  them.  But  the  fact 
shows  the  important  position  filled  by  the  Bithynian 
deaconess. 


162  PAUL    OF   TARSUS. 

The  bishop  and  his  presbytery  bear  an  obvious  re- 
semblance to  the  great  or  the  little  Synedrion  of  the 
Jews.  The  former  of  these  was  constituted  in  imita- 
tion of  the  seventy  elders  who  were  selected  by  Moses 
and  associated  with  him ;  the  latter,  containing  twenty- 
three  members,  was  supposed  to  be  indicated  by  certain 
passages  in  the  book  of  Numbers.  The  chief  of 
this  assembly  of  elders  naturally  became  the  bishop. 
Among  the  heretics,  says  TertuUian,  the  bishop's  office 
was  temporary,  as  was  also  that  of  the  presbyters. 
The  function  of  such  officers  was  to  keep  order  in  the 
Church,  to  admit  the  catechumens,  and  subsequently  to 
see  to  the  instruction  of  the  young,  to  preach,  and  to 
govern.  The  office  of  a  judge  in  matters  of  doubtful 
doctrine,  in  heresy,  and  in  any  breach  of  the  Church's 
law,  was  a  later  development  of  the  episcopal  office,  but 
was  in  course  of  time  naturally  annexed  to  it,  as  the 
organization  of  the  ecclesiastical  system  was  more  ex- 
actly elaborated.  It  may  be  added  that,  as  persecution 
became  more  general,  the  post  of  bishop  was  that  of 
danger,  and,  among  men  who  w^ere  reproached  with  a 
passion  for  martyrdom,  that  of  honor.  The  reader  need 
hardly  be  reminded  that  men  who  have  been  persecuted 
are  not  always  tolerant.  In  the  history  of  Christianity, 
it  has  frequently  been  found  that  they  who  have 
suffered  most,  and  most  patiently  for  their  creed  have, 
when  enabled  to  give  effect  to  their  own  judgment, 
been  distinguished  for  a  savage  and  relentless  ortho- 
doxy. 

Again,   familiarity   with   the   local    magistracy   and 


GROWTH  OF  EPISCOPACY.  168 

council  of  the  Roman  colonies  may  have  suggested 
analogous  institutions  in  the  Church.  The  earliest 
churches,  when  Christianity  was  so  far  tolerated  as  to 
permit  the  erection  of  permanent  buildings  (and  we 
read  of  such  buildings  as  early  as  the  time  of  Alexander 
Severus),  were  built  in  the  form  of  the  Roman  basilica, 
or  .court  of  justice.  On  the  raised  apex  of  the  building 
w^as  the  bishop's  throne,  while,  arranged  in  a  semi- 
circle, on  either  side,  were  the  seats  of  the  presbyters  — 
the  altar  being  placed  just  before  the  bishop.  So  the 
emperor  dispensed  justice  fi*om  his  tribunal,  while  his 
assessors  and  advisers  sat  on  either  side  of  him,  and 
delivered  their  judgments  on  the  case  before  the  court. 
So  the  Pope  sits  still  during  the  highest  ceremonies. 
The  name  by  which  the  area  of  the  bishop's  jurisdiction 
is  designated  is  a  word  denoting  a  secular  administra- 
tion. Diocese  is  used  by  Lysias,  Demosthenes,  and 
Aristotle,  to  imply  the  control  of  expenditure.  It  was 
transferred  to  the  Latin  language,  and  in  Cicero  means 
the  civil  divisions,  or  shires,  into  which  a  province  was 
parcelled  out. 

We  shall  search  in  vain,  then,  for  the  details  of  eccle- 
siastical government  in  the  authority  of  the  Apostolic 
age.  They  were  developed  from  the  necessities  of  the 
position,  and  from  the  convenience  of  adopting  a  pro- 
cess of  administration  which  was  familiar  in  secular 
experience.  Rapidly,  episcopacy  became  one  of  the  con- 
servative forces  of  the  Church,  and  so  formed  a  barrier 
against  novelties  in  speculation  and  practice.     In  time, 


164  PAUL    OF   TARSUS. 

the  conflict  of  opinioD,  which  raged  through  the  fourth 
and  fifth  centuries,  was  waged  by  episcopal  champions 
—  the  success  of  the  combatants  varying,  the  vehe- 
mence and  violence  of  the  battle  increasing.  After  a 
while,  the  patriarchal  see  became  the  unit  in  the  Church, 
and  the  bishop  a  suffi-agan  to  the  metropolitan,  as  the 
presbyters  had  been  made  the  subjects  of  the  bishops. 
Last  of  all  came  the  struggle  for  the  primacy,  and  the 
submission  of  the  whole  Christian  rejDublic  to  a  theo- 
logical Caesar. 

It  is  not  difficult  for  us  to  anticijoate  what  would 
have  been  the  judgment  of  the  author  of  the  Epistle 
to  the  Galatians  on  those  who  would  limit  the  gifts  of 
God  to  the  subjects  of  one  ecclesiastical  administra- 
tion. We  can  easily  imagine  what  he  would  have  said 
of  those  who  assert  that  a  missionary  efibrt  is  neither 
successful  nor  valid,  unless  it  be  accompanied  with  some 
definite  hierarchical  organization,  and  who  would  there- 
fore intrude  on  the  labors  of  others,  —  not  that  they 
may  plant  or  water,  but  that  they  may  clip  the  tree 
into  some  set  shape.  With  a  strong  efibrt  he  had  dis- 
engaged himself  from  the  trammels  of  a  precise  and  for- 
mal education,  and,  though  willing  enough  to  concede 
to  the  prejudices  of  others,  he  insisted  that  the  shib- 
boleths of  ecclesiastical  parties  were  vain  in  them- 
selves, and  might  be  tyrannical,  reactionary,  and  even 
fatal  to  religious  truth  altogether.  The  heathen  have 
been  converted  and  enlightened.  In  place  of  some 
gross  fetish,   dark  rite,  or  debasing   superstition,  they 


EARLY  CHRISTIAN  MEETINGS.  165 

have  been  told  of  a  Father  who  forgives,  of  a  Brother 
who  leads  them  to  the  Divine  presence,  dwells  with 
them,  and  familiarizes  them  with  that  for  which  here- 
tofore they  ignorantly  and  fruitlessly  longed.  They 
feel  a  new  nature  —  are  new  men  —  have  been  born 
again.  Then,  in  the  freshness  of  their  faith,  some  come 
down  to  trouble  them,  and  say,  —  Except  you  adopt 
the  ceremonial,  the  ritual,  the  forms,  the  government 
of  the  church  to  which  we  belong,  ye  cannot  be  saved. 
Can  any  one  doubt  what  advice  Paul  would  have  given 
in  this  crisis,  or  that  his  zeal  for  Christian  liberty  would 
have  forced  him  to  repeat  that  contemptuous  wish 
which  he  uttered  when  he  heard  of  those  who  troubled 
the  Galatians  ? 

We  can,  with  no  great  stretch  of  fancy,  realize  the 
gathering  together  at  the  house  of  Justus,  hard  by  the 
synagogue.  Prayers  are  said  by  the  assembled  con- 
verts. Psalms  are  sung,  perhaps  those  with  which  the 
Jews  commenced  their  devotions.  Then  follows  the 
reading  of  the  Scriptures,  and  in  particular  those 
majestic  compositions  which,  full  of  dignity,  wisdom, 
warning,  hope,  have  come  down  to  us  under  the  names 
of  the  great  Jewish  prophets.  Then  some  of  those 
present  narrate  their  experience  of  the  new  gosj^el, 
recount  the  visions,  the  ecstatic  reveries,  the  heavenly 
sounds  with  which  they  have  been  favored,  —  such, 
for  example,  as  are  told  in  the  Shepherd  of  Hermas. 
Others  give,  in  turn,  to  the  whole  assembly,  or  to 
groups  collected  there,  short  exhortations  on  the  Chris- 


166  PAUL   OF  TARSUS. 

tian  life  and  the  Christian  hope.  Afterwards  follows 
the  feast  in  memory  of  that  which  Christ  held  on  the 
night  that  He  was  betrayed ;  then  thanks  are  given 
to  God,  and  the  assembly  disperses  with  the  kiss  of 
peace. 


CHAPTER  V. 

'T"'^HERE  is  probably  no  man  who  doubts  the  histor- 
-*-  ical  existence  of  The  Person  some  of  whose  acts 
and  words  are  narrated  in  the  gospels.  But  to  many- 
minds  He  is  represented  as  an  idealized  being,  the  real 
lineaments  of  whose  life  and  teaching  it  is  impossible 
to  discover  in  the  cloud  of  myths  by  which  the  figure 
is  enveloped.  This  opinion  has  partly  risen  out  of  a 
disbelief  in  the  supernatural  —  a  disbelief  which  has 
been  growing  for  the  last  century,  and  which  has  been 
strongly  assisted  by  the  progress  of  physical  science,  — 
partly  out  of  the  impression  that  the  miracles  of  Chris- 
tianity are  at  once  essential  to  its  truth,  and  manifes- 
tations of  an  absolutely  new  power,  instead  of  being, 
as  they  profess  to  be,  the  exercise  of  exalted  energy, 
—  partly  from  antagonism  to  that  dogmatism  which, 
professing  to  be  based  on  certain  positions,  the  accept- 
ance of  which  is  necessary  to  salvation,  has  inflicted, 
and  still  inflicts,  prodigious  injuries  on  mankind.  The 
theory  that  the  narrative  of  the  gospels  is  generally 
mythical  is  further  supported  by  the  fact  that  it  con- 
tains discrepancies  and  contradictions,  which,  on  the 
commonest  rules  of  historical  criticism,  ought  to  throw 
grave  doubts  on  the  genuineness  of  the   story.     This 


168  PAUL  OF  TARSUS. 

latter  argument  seems  to  me  to  have  very  little  weight. 
The  notion  that  genuine  history  is  characterized  by  an 
exact  and  minute  attention  to  details,  is  wholly  mod- 
ern. It  may  be  doubted  whether  —  since  no  nari-ative 
can  give  all  particulars  —  this  method  of  historical 
composition  does  not,  with  all  its  affectation  of  reality, 
present  a  more  unreal  presentation  of  the  past,  than 
the  artless  tale  of  an  interested,  but  uncritical  observer, 
—  whether,  in  short,  syncretic  history  is  not  exceed- 
ingly apt  to  be  untrustworthy  or  decej^tive.  Thucyd- 
ides  is  the  type  of  an  exact  and  patient  historian. 
Had,  however,  another  author,  of  an  equally  critical 
turn  of  mind,  devoted  his  attention  to  the  same  events, 
we  should,  most  probably,  have  two  very  different 
stories  of  the  Peloponnesian  war.  The  more  accurately 
two  persons  narrate  their  impressions  of  the  same  great 
events,  the  wider  is  sure  to  be  the  discrepancy  between 
them.  No  two  men  see  facts  in  exactly  the  same  light, 
or  direct  their  attention  to  exactly  the  same  circum- 
stances. 

Be  this  as  it  may.  If  the  narrative  of  the  Evan- 
gelists is  a  myth,  it  is  the  most  magnificent  myth  ever 
invented.  Assume,  if  you  will,  that  the  Jesus  of  the 
gospels  is  a  Jewish  doctor,  who  united  in  His  person, 
and  at  that  time,  the  wisdom  of  a  Rabbi  and  the  en- 
thusiastic genius  of  a  Hebrew  Prophet,  and  that  two 
parties  —  the  Jewish  hierarchy  and  that  bureaucracy 
wdiich  got  the  party  name  of  the  Herodians  —  com- 
bined against  Him  with  a  trumped-up  charge  of  trea- 
son  against   the   Roman   government,  and  threatened 


THE   CHRIST   OF   THE    GOSPELS.         169 

Pilate  —  a  creature  of  Sejanus,  who  might  be  alarmed 
at  the  prospect  of  being  involved  in  his  patron's  ruin 
—  into  getting  this  inconvenient  teacher  put  out  of 
the  way  by  a  legal  murder.  It  is  plain  that  this  is  the 
ostensible  ground  of  procedure  before  Pilate,  and  it 
is  equally  plain  that  offence,  taken  at  the  unsparing 
reproofs  which  Jesus  uttered  against  the  chiefs  of  Jew- 
ish society,  was  the  motive  which  weighed  with  the 
traditional  parties  of  Christ's  day.  Such  an  event  is 
no  way  remarkable.  An  oligarchy  conspiring  against 
a  reformer,  and  using  every  effort  to  crush  him,  is  a 
familiar  historical  occurrence. 

But  this,  though  it  is,  in  brief,  the  prominent  fact  in 
the  life  and  death  of  Christ,  and  though  it  is  seen 
clearly  in  the  story  of  the  gospels,  is  not  the  conception 
which  occupies  the  minds  of  the  Evangelists,  and  ab- 
sorbs those  who  have  studied  their  narratives  for  eigh- 
teen centuries.  In  the  epic  of  the  Gospel,  if  we  are  to 
consider  these  compositions  as  so  many  poems,  there 
is  one  hero.  There  are  other  characters  drawn  in  very 
slight  outline,  but  with  great  clearness,  with  rare 
beauty  and  nature.  The  fervid  unsteadiness  of  Peter, 
the  habitual  dejection  of  Thomas,  the  tenderness  of 
John,  the  indecision  of  JSTathanael,  the  zeal  of  Zac- 
chseus,  the  womanly  worship  of  the  Magdalene,  the 
contrast  between  the  sisters  of  Bethany,  are  j^ortrayed 
in  a  word  or  two. 

But  in  the  centre  of  all  this  is  the  figure  of  Christ. 
It  is  not  a  colossal  form  which  dwarfs  the  other  actors 
in  the  drama,  or  a  prodigious  force  by  the  side  of  which 


ITO  PAUL   OF  TARSUS. 

ordinary  human  energy  is  lost,  or  an  overmastering  will 
whose  resistless  action  compels  submission  and  obedi- 
ence, but  it  is  an  effulgence  which  extinguishes  every 
other  light.  It  is  said  that  the  sun  at  its  highest  makes 
all  other  flame  cast  a  shadow.  Now  the  Evangelists 
were  so  profoundly  conscious  of  the  luminousness  of 
that  Presence,  that,  to  the  reader  of  the  gospels,  Christ 
appears  always  in  the  radiant  garment  and  with  the 
visage  of  His  transfiguration.  He  is  as  the  sun  in  the 
splendor  of  which  other  luminaries  are  extinguished. 
The  Humanity  of  Christ  is  never  lost  sight  of.  He  is 
always  Jesus  of  ^N'azareth,  but  He  is  surrounded  by  an 
indescribable  and  mysterious  clearness,  which  we  seem 
to  gaze  on  as  the  disciples  did.  In  the  simplest  and 
most  familial-  acts  of  His  life  among  them,  He  is  with 
them,  but  not  of  them.  Their  relations  to  Him  are  not 
those  of  a  Rabbi  to  his  pupils,  but  of  men  necessarily 
following  and  wondering  at  a  Person  who  is  wholly 
superior  to  themselves,  whom  they  saw  constantly, 
whom  they  reverenced  profoundly,  but  whom,  as  they 
confess,  they  understood  imperfectly.  He  taught  as 
one  having  authority,  and  He  spoke  and  acted  with  all 
the  authority  of  His  teaching.  If  the  Christ  of  the 
gospels  is  a  hallucination  of  the  Evangelists,  it  is  the 
most  amazing  and  the  most  attractive  conception  which 
the  imagination  has  ever  framed. 

Attempts  have  been  made  more  than  once  to  invest 
an  historical  personage  with  ideal  characteristics.  Two 
such  attempts  were  notoriously  undertaken  in  rivalry 
of  the  Christ,  as  described  in  the  gospels.    These  are 


CHRIST  AND  SOCRATES.  171 

the  life  of  Apollonius  of  Tyana  by  Philostratus,  and 
that  of  Pythagoras  by  Jamblichus.  The  most  unfriendly 
critic  of  Christianity  would  not  contrast  these  narratives 
favorably  with  the  gospels.  Besides,  both  personages 
are  unreal.  The  existence  of  Apollonius  is  doubted, 
and  the  first  historian  of  Greek  j)hilosophy,  Aristotle, 
though  he  often  speaks  of  the  Pythagoreans,  never 
mentions  the  name  of  the  sage  who  was  in  after  times 
reputed  to  be  the  founder  of  the  sect. 

But  the  draft  of  an  idealized  portrait  has  been  once 
made,  and  by  the  greatest  master  of  dramatic  language 
which  the  ancient  world  produced.  Every  effort  of 
his  imagination  was  lavished  by  Plato  on  completing, 
the  picture  of  his  Socrates,  and  the  works  of  this  in- 
comparable writer  have  come  down  to  us  entire.  We 
know  that  the  picture  is  ideal,  for  we  have  a  homelier 
portrait  of  the  wisest  Greek  from  the  pen  of  another 
disciple  whose  sketch  is  much  more  true  to  nature. 
But  Plato  did  for  philosophy  what  the  great  sculptors 
of  antiquity  did  for  the  human  form.  As  they  invested 
their  statues  of  gods  and  heroes  with  their  highest  con- 
ceptions of  human  beauty,  so  Plato  conferred  on  his 
imaginary  Socrates  the  possession  of  the  loftiest  ideal 
philosophy. 

The  parallel  between  Christ  and  Socrates  has  often 
been  drawn.  Both  were  reformers  of  society,  both 
suffered  on  a  false  charge  of  impiety,  and  in  deference 
to  a  false  patriotism.  But  here  the  parallel  ends.  So- 
crates is  the  purest  example  of  heathen  ethics,  and  the 
Platonic  system  of  ethics  is  sustained  by  a  scheme  of 


172  PAUL   OF  TARSUS. 

emanations  which  are  intended  to  have  the  force  of  a 
rehgious  authority,  and  to  be  confirmed  by  the  laws  of 
thought.  But  Christ  is  the  founder  of  a  religion.  Nay, 
He  is  the  religion  itself.  Other  men  have  been  shadows 
of  the  great  Original.  Here  is  man  in  the  image  of 
God,  —  man  as  the  ancient  seers  conceived  him  to  have 
been  originally  framed,  —  man  as  modern  optimists 
conceive  him  capable  of  becoming.  Here  is  the  type 
of  humanity.  Henceforth  religion  is  the  imitation  of 
Christ,  because  the  nature  of  God  has  shone  forth  in  the 
person  of  man.  If  this  conception  is  a  myth,  the  grand- 
est poetical  character  is  dwarfed  into  nothingness  beside 
the  narratives  of  the  reformed  tax-gatherer,  the  attend- 
ant on  Paul  and  Barnabas,  the  physician  of  Troas,  and 
the  fisherman  of  Galilee,  who,  whatever  may  be  their 
discrepancies  in  detail,  agree  in  this  magnificent  ideal 
of  wisdom,  holiness,  loveliness.  If  this  conception  be 
a  myth,  humanity  is  better  in  its  myths  than  it  is  in  its 
verities. 

The  easiest  road  to  saintship  is  by  asceticism.  Men 
are  instinctively  so  enamoure  1  of  self-denial  —  are  so 
pleased  by  a  contrast  to  the  wretched  clamor  of  self- 
interest,  which  is  always  stunning  them  with  its  preten- 
tious noise,  that  they  will  honor  a  fool  if  he  can  show 
himself  disinterested.  They  will  even  acquiesce  in  a 
system  which  is  certain  to  induce  moral  and  social  evil, 
even  if  it  furthers  the  worst  ambition  which  a  sinister 
organization  .can  gratify,  provided  only  that  an  ascetic 
tinge  is  imparted  to  those  who  found  the  system. 
Buddhism  is  the  w^orship  of  asceticism.     Brahmanism 


CHRIST  AND  ASCETICISM.  173 

owes  its  continued  existence  to  the  austerities  of  Fakirs 
and  devotees.  The  founders  of  the  Roman  orders  have 
been  almost  invariably  rigorous  ascetics.  Some  of  them 
have  been  crazy,  or  almost  idiotic.  There  is  nothing 
which  is  more  cardinal  in  the  discipline  of  the  Roman 
Church  than  the  celibacy  of  the  clergy.  A  married 
minister  of  the  Gospel  is  inconceivable  to  the  most 
liberal  layman  of  the  Romish  Church.  Nothing  puz- 
zled the  contemporaries  of  Talleyrand  —  secularized  as 
he  was  by  the  highest  authority,  so  much  as  his  mar- 
riage. And  yet  the  truest  critics  of  the  social  state  in 
Roman  Catholic  countries  have  deplored  the  celibacy 
of  their  clergy  —  have  seen  that  the  surrender  of  all 
domestic  ties  gives  a  vigor  to  ecclesiastical  organization 
and  usurpation  which  is  eminently  dangerous  to  society, 
and  is  wholly  inimical  to  liberty.  And  in  another 
manner,  though  the  Graeco-Russian  Church  enjoins 
marriage  on  the  parochial  clergy,  all  authorities  — 
latest  among  them,  Dr.  Eckhardt  —  concur  in  stating 
that  all  ecclesiastical  influence  is  with  the  monks,  and 
that  the  secular  clergy  are  despised  and  degraded. 

Christ  totally  repudiated  asceticism.  He  is  contin- 
ually rej^resented  at  the  home  of  rich  men.  When  He 
entered  on  His  mission  His  first  appearance  is  at  a 
wedding.  He  avows  that  He  came  eating  and  drink- 
ing, and  we  are  told  that  He  was  calumniated  because 
He  did  not  decline  the  hospitalities  which  were  offered 
Him.  He  recognizes  the  stern  courage  of  John  the 
Baptist,  —  asserts  that  he  was  a  prophet,  nay,  even 
more  than  a  prophet,  —  but  speaks  slightingly  of  his 


174  PAUL    OF  TARSUS. 

pretensions  and  position  as  compared  with  those  who 
are  within  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  He  taught,  to  be 
sure,  that  mien  who  follow  Him  must  deny  themselves, 
' — He  put  a  sharp  test  to  the  rich  young  man  who 
would  be  His  disciple,  —  He  avowed  that  wealth  was  a 
danger,  and  inculcated  reliance  on  the  providence  of 
God  for  the  supply  of  daily  necessities.  The  sacrifice 
of  one's  own  interest  may  be  a  condition  of  the  highest 
morality  and  religion  which  the  Gospel  inculcates,  but 
Christ  never  makes  asceticism  the  end  of  life,  as  the 
purifier  of  the  soul. 

It  is  evident  that  the  disciples  who  walked  with 
Christ  were  struck  most  of  all  with  His  insight  into 
men's  hearts.  He  knows  man  thoroughly.  He  divines 
the  thoughts  of  individuals,  anticipates  their  words, 
reads  their  very  soul.  This  is  the  power  which  is  al- 
ways present  in  Him.  Such  a  conception  is  perfectly 
true  to  nature.  To  know  mankind  is  the  greatest  mani- 
festation of  what  we  call  genius.  To  interpret  public 
opinion,  and  thereupon  to  guide  it,  is  the  highest  effort 
of  statesmanship.  To  know  all  this,  and  to  be  able 
also  to  exercise  the  same  power  in  particulars,  —  to 
discern  by  an  instant  intuition  all  that  passes  through 
the  mind  of  another,  —  is  to  be  possessed  of  the  Wis- 
dom and  the  Power  of  God.  Now  this  was  what  the 
Evangelists  perpetually  recognized  in  their  intercourse 
with  Christ. 

Joined  to  this  marvellous  insight  into  man,  Christ 
had  another  notable  characteristic,  —  that  of  profound 
sympathy  for  suffering,  infinite  tenderness  for  the  weak, 


COMPASSIONATENESS   OF  CHRIST.         175 

boundless  charity  for  the  penitent.  The  reproach  was 
cast  at  Him  that  He  was  the  friend  of  publicans  and 
sinners.  The  rich  man  who  made  Him  a  feast  is  amazed 
at  His  gracious  bearing  to  the  penitent  woman  who 
shed  tears  on  His  feet.  His  parable  of  the  Prodigal 
Son  —  a  story  which  has  taught  repentance  and  hope 
to  thousands  —  is  the  narrative  of  His  own  bearing  to 
the  sinful  soul  which  yearns  for  pardon.  So,  again, 
with  His  commiseration  for  the  widow  at  Nain,  His 
compassion  for  the  bereaved  parents  in  Galilee,  His 
sympathy  with  the  sisters  of  Lazarus,  His  unceasing 
benevolence  to  the  sick  and  ailing.  There  is  nothing 
more  touching  in  the  Hfe  of  Christ  than  His  welcome 
of  children  to  His  arms,  and  His  sorrow  at  the  impend- 
ing fate  of  Jerusalem.  Now,  if  wisdom  is  divine,  love 
joined  to  wisdom  is  even  more  divine.  It  is  the  rarest 
of  conjunctions,  but  the  most  winning  of  forces.  It 
turns  a  terror  into  a  Providence.  This  exact  scrutiny 
into  motives,  this  distinctness  with  which  thought  or 
purpose  is  known,  would  frighten  and  deter  man  from 
companionshijD  with  so  acute  and  clear-sighted  an 
observer.  But  when  this  knowledge  is  interpreted  by 
love,  it  becomes  infinitely  attractive.  And  the  Christ 
of  the  gospels  is  a  personage  in  whom  these  quaUties 
combine.  He  has  even  a  word  of  compassion  for  the 
miserable  Judas,  He  utters  a  prayer  for  the  forgiveness 
of  them  who  crucified  Him. 

The  Jews,  nineteen  centuries  ago,  were  keenly  ex- 
pecting the  coming  of  the  Messiah.  The  teaching  of 
the  Rabbis  had  discovered  this  manifestation  in  such 


176  PAUL   OF   TARSUS. 

phrases  as  "  the  Word  of  God,"  "  the  power  of  God," 
"  the  wisdom  of  God."  Some  speculated  on  the  mys- 
tic numbers  in  the  Book  of  Daniel.  Some,  mindful 
of  the  glorious  era  of  David  and  Solomon,  materialized 
the  promise  made  to  the  Fathers.  This  was  the  popu- 
lar view.  The  multitudes  were  ready  to  make  Jesus 
a  king.  They  joined  gladly  in  His  processional  entiy 
into  Jerusalem  —  an  act  which  evidently  alarmed  the 
chief  men  in  the  city.  The  last  expectation  of  the 
Twelve,  according  to  the  narrative  in  the  Acts  of 
the  Apostles,  is  that  He  should  restore  the  kingdom  to 
Israel.  But  the  wisest  men  anticipated  only  a  moral 
revolution  —  a  fulfilment  of  the  prophecy  of  Zechariah, 
"  The  Lord  shall  be  King  of  the  whole  earth.  In  that 
day  there  shall  be  one  Lord,  and  His  name  one."  The 
doctrine  of  Christ,  "  The  kingdom  of  God  is  within 
you,"  had  no  strange  sound  to  Jewish  ears.  The  office 
of  the  Word,  according  to  the  Talmudists,  is  to  en- 
lio^hten  the  man.  The  youno;  man  who  fulfilled  the 
Law  Avas  not  far  fi'om  the  kingdom  of  God.  The  Jew 
could  read  and  understand  the  words  of  Hosea, — 
"  What  does  the  Law  demand  of  thee,  except  it  be  to 
do  justice,  and  to  love  mercy,  and  to  be  ready  to  walk 
with  the  Lord  thy  God." 

During  the  life  of  Christ  the  two  characteristics 
which  I  have  referred  to  were  constantly  before  the 
view  of  His  disciples.  Of  course  they  did  not  believe 
that  such  a  person  could  be  delivered  into  the  hands  of 
His  enemies.  When  Peter  repudiated  the  suggestion, 
he,  no  doubt,  spoke  the  thoughts  of  all  those  who  were 


RESURRECTION  OF  CHRIST.  177 

with  him.  It  is  probable  that  Judas  did  not  intend  to 
do  more  than  take  money  for  assisting  in  an  attempt 
which  he  was  persuaded  would  fliil.  Is  it  possible  to 
believe  that  John  the  evangelist,  who  was  the  especial 
object  of  Christ's  favor,  and  who  was  known  to  the 
high  priest,  could  have  witnessed  what  went  on  in  the 
pontiff's  palace  and  the  praetorium,  and  have  been 
silent,  if  he  had  not  been  convinced  that  this  judicial 
procedure  would  have  ended  in  an  acquittal,  or  in  some 
manifestation  of  power,  by  which  Christ  would  have 
passed  out  from  the  midst  of  His  enemies  ?  Had  not 
Christ  said  that  He  was  greater  than  Solomon  and 
Jonah  —  the  king  and  the  prophet  who  severally  af- 
fected the  imagination  of  the  Jew  most  powerfully? 
For  the  one  was  the'  most  sj^lendid  monarch  of  Eastern 
story ;  the  other  was  the  prophet  who,  having  by  his 
counsel  restored  the  kingdom  of  Israel  to  the  dimen- 
sions it  reached  in  the  days  of  the  great  king,  left 
unwillingly  his  office  of  chief  minister  at  the  court  of 
the  second  Jeroboam,  in  order  to  denounce  the  sin  and 
predict  the  fall  of  Nineveh  the  great -^  of  the  rival, 
and  finally,  the  conqueror  of  Israel. 

The  narrative  of  the  gospels  testifies  to  the  conster- 
nation of  the  disciples  at  the  judicial  murder  of  Jesus. 
But  their  sorrow  soon  gave  way  to  joy.  They  were 
informed  that  He  was  risen  again  from  the  dead,  and 
this  by  eye-witnesses  of  His  revived  Presence.  The 
body  was  no  longer  in  the  tomb. 

They  who  do  not  believe  that  death  has  ever  loosed 
its  hold  on  those  whom  it  has  once  occupied  are  con- 
8*  L  ■ 


178  PAUL   OF  TARSUS. 

strained  to  adopt  the  hypothesis,  that  the  narrative  of 
Christ's  resurrection  is  a  fraud,  or  a  delusion,  or  both. 
If  the  disciples  did  dispose  of  the  body  of  Christ,  and 
persisted  in  proclaiming  that  He  had  risen,  till  they 
were  overpowered  by  an  hallucination  which  had  its 
beginnings  in  deceit  and  falsehood,  and  if,  while  occu- 
pied by  this  imagination,  they  adopted  a  severe  and 
ascetic  life,  an  exact  and  precise  morality,  it  is  not  easy 
to  find  the  parallel  to  such  a  delusion.  No  rational 
person  can  doubt,  that  the  belief  in  the  resurrection  of 
Christ  was  entertained  as  firmly  by  all  those  who  jDro- 
fessed  His  religion,  as  the  belief  in  their  own  existence 
was.  It  is  proclaimed  before  God  and  man,  not,  be  it 
observed,  for  any  material  end,  —  such  as  a  scheme  of 
conquest,  or  the  foundation  of  a  spiritual  despotism,  to 
be  exercised  by  those  who  could  induce  their  hearers 
to  acquiesce  in  a  supernatural  authority,  —  but  by  men 
who  are  charged  with  advocating  so  spiritual  a  system, 
that  they  ignored  home,  friends,  country,  life  itself,  for 
the  sake  of  Him  whom  they  said  was  risen. 

It  seems  impossible  to  doubt  the  good  faith  of  those 
simple  and  devout  men,  who  could  have  had  no  pos- 
sible motive  for  committing  a  fraud,  and  perpetuating 
a  falsehood.  Writing  twenty-five  years  after  the  event, 
the  apostle  Paul  states  that  Christ  was  seen  by  Peter, 
by  the  Twelve,  by  five  hundred  at  once  —  most  of 
whom,  he  added,  were  still  alive  at  the  time  of  his 
writing ;  by  James,  and  again,  by  all  the  apostles.  Be- 
lief in  the  resurrection  of  Christ  is  not  made  to  depend 
on  the  testimony  of  one  or  two  women,  who  have  vis- 


TESTIMONY  TO  THE  RESURRECTION.      179 

ited  the  sepulchre  at  the  early  dawn  of  a  spring  morn- 
ing and  been  deceived  by  some  appearance  and  sound, 
or  upon  the  assertion  of  some  ecstatic  visionary,  whose 
imagination  has  represented  the  Person  whom  he  had 
followed  so  long,  the  voice  which  he  had  so  often  lis- 
tened to.  The  evidence  is  cumulative ;  and,  as  far  as 
one  hears,  no  single  person  who  had  averred  that  he 
had  seen  the  risen  Christ  ever  shook  oif  the  impression 
or  conviction,  or  discovered  that  he  had  been  in  error. 
There  is  no  parallel  to  so  general,  so  persistent  a  delu- 
sion. 

According  to  the  narrative  in  the  Acts  —  given 
three  times  over,  and  purporting,  on  two  of  these 
occasions,  to  come  fi'om  Paul's  own  lips — the  conver- 
sion of  the  Apostle  was  due  to  a  vision  of  the  risen 
Christ.  Without  relating  the  circumstances,  St.  Paul 
tells  the  Corinthians  that  he  had  an  interview  with 
Jesus,  and  was  thereupon  an  independent  witness  of 
His  resurrection.  Elsewhere,  he  rests  his  equality  with 
the  old  apostolate  on  the  ground  that  "  he  had  seen 
the  Lord."  The  author  of  the  Clementines  disputes  the 
fact,  in  order  to  dispose  of  his  claims  to  such  a  dig- 
nity. It  is  clear,  then,  that  when  Paul  wrote  his  epis- 
tles there  were  very  many  persons  who  were  ready  to 
give  their  testimony  to  the  resurrection  of  Christ,  —  to 
their  having  seen  and  conversed  with  Him. 

The  affirmation  of  the  death  of  Christ  is  the  basis 
of  the  doctrine  which  asserts  the  redemption  of  man. 
The  means  by  which  man  can  be  restored,  or  be 
created  anew,  or  can  commence  the  process  of  perfec- 


180  PAUL    OF   TARSUS. 

tion,  is  the  suffering  of  Christ.  That  the  progress  of 
humanity  is  achieved  by  the  self-sacrifice  of  those  who 
devote  themselves  to  its  good,  is  a  tenet  in  every  re- 
ligion, and  is  confirmed  by  overwhelming  experience. 
The  sacrifice  of  Christ  is  the  apotheosis  of  this  princi- 
ple. Whether  one  considers  the  merit  of  the  sufferer, 
or  the  excellence  of  the  doctrine  which  he  taught,  the 
example  of  Christ  is  the  chief  illustration  of  the  seem- 
ing paradox,  that  society  gains  by  its  losses,  that 
it  conquers  by  its  sacrifices,  that  a  righteous  cause 
triumphs  because  it  spares  neither  life  nor  labor  in  the 
prosecution  of  its  claims,  in  the  vindication  of  itself. 
Christ  was  the  gi-eat  atonement,  but  man  is  always 
engaged  in  the  work  of  atonement  for  his  fellow-man, 
as  long  as  vice,  sin,  ignorance,  have  to  be  combated, 
wrong  redressed,  right  done.  Too  often,  indeed,  the 
sacrifice  and  suffering  are  wasted  because  the  imme- 
diate end  is  false  or  unworthy.  Whatever  else  may  be 
its  merits,  Christianity,  in  the  hands  of  Paul,  puts 
prominently  forward  the  statement  of  the  condition 
under  which  man  may  be  regenerated,  and  declares  that 
this  sacrifice  is  vain,  even  in  the  person  of  its  highest 
Exemplar,  unless  the  same  course  be  followed  by  those 
who  accept  the  Gospel.  Other  apostles  had  afiirmed 
the  doctrine  that  the  sacrifice  of  Christ  is  the  salvation 
of  man.  Paul  recognized  the  ethical  significance  of 
the  statement,  extended  and  developed  it,  and  made  it 
a  permanent  rule  of  conduct.  The  atonement  of  Christ 
is  not  in  the  hands  of  this  Apostle  a  magical  purifica.- 
tion,  but  an  example,  the  imitation   of  which   is   the 


CEBIS2YANITY  AND  BENEVOLENCE.       181 

duty,  the  glory,  the  hope  of  them  who  would  be  like 
Him  ;  and  if  stress  is  sometimes  laid  on  the  immediate 
effect  of  Christ's  death  in  those  who  are  enlightened, 
and  less  emphasis  is  put  on  the  continuity  of  the  Avork 
which  man  does  for  man,  it  must  be  remembered  that 
the  apostolic  generation  confidently  looked  forward  to 
the  termination  of  the  world  within  the  lives  of  those 
who  had  witnessed  the  crucifixion. 

To  do  unsought  and  unrewarded  benefit  to  mankind 
for  the  sake  of  God  is  the  essence  of  the  Christian  life. 
It  is  that  which  gives  perpetual  vitality  to  Christianity, 
which  enables  it  in  spite  of  its  having  been  often  en- 
slaved to  a  coarse,  harsh,  false,  political  system,  —  in 
spite  of  its  being  perverted  by  dogmatic  logomachies, 
and  presented  as  a  set  of  opinions,  —  to  assist  and 
retain  the  foremost  place  among  civilizing  agencies. 
The  essence  of  Christianity  is  not  in  the  priest,  but  in 
the  sacrifice.  It  is  to  Christianity  that  we  owe  school, 
hospital,  reformatory,  and  other  allied  agencies  by 
which  it  is  hoped  that  sin  and  vice  will  be  discouraged 
and  diminished.  It  is  very  possible  that  many  of 
those  who  are  virtually  under  its  influence,  decline,  as 
far  as  words  go,  to  acknowledge  its  authority.  But 
men  are  constantly,  for  good  as  well  as  evil,  controlled 
by  traditions,  habits,  associations  which  they  do  not 
recognize,  or  which  they  even  repudiate.  Other  relig- 
ions have  inculcated  beneficence,  almsgiving,  charity ; 
but  Christianity  is  peculiar,  in  having  taught  that  man 
can  save  man,  and  that  he  ought  to  save  man.  The 
civilization  of  man  is  not  an  induction,  but  an  expe- 


182  PAUL   OF  TARSUS. 

rience,  a  harmony,  an  adaptation  of  those  forces  which 
may  enhghten  him,  and  leave  him  free. 

The  sacrifice  of  Christ,  and  the  significance  of  that 
sacrifice,  are  deduced  from  the  admitted  facts  of  His 
trial  and  execution.  Both  trial  and  execution  were 
due  to  personal  animosity  on  the  part  of  the  leading 
Jews,  who  stirred  up  the  populace  to  demanding  the 
death  of  Jesus.  PeojDle  talk  of  the  fickleness  of  a 
mob,  and  ignore  the  deliberate  malignity  of  an  oli- 
garchy. There  is  reason  to  believe  that  the  mob  was 
not  one  of  native,  but  one  of  foreign  Jews,  who,  com- 
ing up  to  the  temple  in  crowds,  that  they  might  cele- 
brate the  Passover,  were  easily  wrought  to  madness  by 
hearing  that  Jesus  had  said  He  would  destroy  the  tem- 
ple. Another  mob  of  foreign  Jews,  twenty  years  or 
more  after  this  time,  was  roused  to  the  same  mad- 
ness when  they  were  informed  that  Paul  had  brought 
Greeks  within  the  Jewish  precinct.  In  these  days, 
the  Russian  of  the  Greek  Church,  and  the  Frenchman 
of  the  Latin,  are  more  easily  driven  to  frenzy  by  tales 
about  the  profanation  of  their  churches  in  Palestine, 
than  the  resident  Christians  of  Jerusalem  are.  When 
they  visit  the  sacred  places,  they  are  far  more  fanatical 
than  those  are  who  habitually  dwell  on  the  spot.  Nor 
is  the  more  sober  judgment  of  those  reformed  church- 
men who  do  not  stimulate  the  religious  sense  by  sym- 
bolism or  local  feeling  free  from  liability  to  similar 
impressions.  Facts,  says  the  Roman  poet,  have  far 
less  influence  on  the  ear  than  they  have  on  the  eye. 
But  distance  lends  intensity  to  sentiment. 


RESURRECTION  OF  THE  BODY.  183 

The  resurrection  of  the  body  Avas  a  fixed  article  in 
the  creed  of  the  orthodox  Jews.  It  was  affirmed  by- 
Christ  generally.  He  predicted  it  of  Himself  As  has 
been  stated  before,  it  was  believed  to  have  occurred  in 
the  person  of  Christ,  and  there  were  a  host  of  witnes- 
ses who  were  ready  to  affirm  that  they  had  seen  Him 
in  life  and  in  the  body  whom  the  chiefs  of  the  Jew- 
ish nation  had  persuaded  Pilate  to  crucify.  It  may  be 
said  that  the  body  of  Christ  was  not  identical  in  its 
physical  qualities  with  that  of  His  life  and  passion. 
He  appears  suddenly,  and  disappears  as  suddenly.  The 
corporeity  of  the  risen  Jesus  was  unlike  that  of  ordi- 
nary men,  but  it  could,  according  to  the  narrative  of 
the  fourth  gospel,  be  touched  and  handled.  Accord- 
ing to  Luke,  the  risen  Christ  actually  ate  with  His  dis- 
ciples, and  soon  afterwards  disappeared,  being  carried 
away  to  heaven.  But  no  other  gosjiel  ascribes  to  Him 
those  peculiarities  of  ordinary  life,  and  the  authenticity 
of  the  passage  in  St.  Luke's  gospel  is  not  free  from 
doubt. 

Paul  was  by  education  a  believer  in  the  resurrection 
of  the  body,  and  had  he  remained  constant  to  the  faith 
of  his  youth,  he  would  have  insisted  as  energetically 
on  this  tenet  as  a  necessary  part  of  the  creed  of  a 
spiritual  religion,  as  he  did  after  his  acceptance  of 
Christianity.  Then  he  had  seen  a  Person  who  had 
certainly  been  dead.  The  tenet  had  been  verified  by  a 
prerogative  instance.  Accepted  as  a  fact,  the  resurrec- 
tion of  Christ  became  the  basis  of  that  doctrine  accord- 
ing to  which  Christ  unites  and  permeates  all  those  who 


184  PAUL   OF   TARSUS. 

are  His  redeemed.  This  is  His  grace,  His  peace,  His 
presence  or  indwelling.  So  strongly  is  the  resurrection 
of  Christ  identified  with  the  spiritual  life,  that  the 
Apostle  cannot  conceive  the  death  of  Christ  to  be 
effectual  for  the  regeneration  or  salvation  of  mankind, 
except  on  the  hypothesis  of  His  subsequent  resurrec- 
tion. "  If  Christ,"  says  he,  "  has  not  risen,  that  which 
we  preach  is  valueless,  and  your  trust  is  delusive.  We 
too  are  found  out  to  have  given  false  evidence  of  God, 
for  we  have  borne  our  testimony  of  Him  that  He  has 
raised  Christ,  whom  he  has  not  raised,  if  there  be  no 
resurrection  of  the  dead.  —  If  Christ  be  not  raised, 
your  confidence  is  vain,  ye  are  still  in  your  sins ;  nay, 
they  who  have  slept  in  Christ,  have  perished.  As  it  is, 
however,  Christ  is,"  he  adds  (using  a  metaphor  familiar 
from  the  custom  which  prevailed  among  the  dispersed 
Jews,  of  forwarding  offerings  to  the  temple  in  Jerusa- 
lem), "the  first-fruits  of  the  dead." 

Paul  giA'es  no  reason  for  this  connection  of  the  resur- 
rection of  Christ  with  the  hopes  which  he  held  out  in 
his  gospel,  beyond  this  statement,  that  the  resurrection 
is  the  guarantee  of  man's  immortality,  and  thereupon 
of  that  compensation  for  the  sufferings  of  life,  in  which 
the  religious  sense  assures  men.  He  held,  it  would 
seem,  that  unless  there  be  some  fresh  garment  for  the 
spirit  of  man,  unless  it  be  clothed  on  by  some  eternal 
vestment,  it  has  no  individuality,  no  existence.  The 
body  is  the  instrument  of  natural  life,  and  the  spiritual 
life  of  the  hereafter  needs  some  similar  instrument  by 
which  to  exhibit  and  continue  its  energies.     In  short, 


DOCTRINE   OF  IMMORTALITY.  185 

if  the  death  of  the  body  be  not  a  prelude  to  its  resur- 
rection under  some  new  and  perpetual  organization, 
death  annihilates  the  spirit  simultaneously  with  its 
separation  from  that  physical  being  which  manifestly 
perishes.  To  die  is  not  to  live,  unless  the  life  finds 
some  other  dwelling-place.  "We  know,"  he  says,  in 
his  Second  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians,  "that  if  our 
earthly  house,  which  is  a  tent,  be  dissolved,  we  have  a 
habitation  from  God,  a  house  not  made  with  hands, 
eternal  in  the  heavens.  In  this  we  groan,  longing  to 
put  on  our  heavenly  home,  to  be  found  clothed,  not 
naked.  We  who  are  in  this  tent  groan  under  our  bur- 
den, since  we  do  not  wish  to  be  stripped,  but  to  be 
clothed  fully,  that  the  mortal  part  of  our  nature  may  be 
absorbed  by  life." 

The  immortality  of  the  Greek  philosophers  was 
vague  and  shadowy.  That  force,  genius,  virtue,  could 
be  irretrievably  lost  with  the  death  of  the  man  in 
whom  they  w^ere  existent,  was  an  intolerable  sugges- 
tion. That  the  outrageous  injustice  with  which  the* 
life  of  antiquity  was  too  frequently  acquainted,  with 
which  all  social  life  is  too  familiar,  should  not  be  recti- 
fied by  some  Power,  and  at  some  future  time,  was  so 
shocking  a  sentiment,  that  it  could  not  be  entertained 
without  imperilling  even  that  measure  of  justice  which 
existing  society  has  been  able  to  secure,  and  without 
which  society  would  come  to  an  end.  But  how,  and  in 
what  form,  the  soul's  immortality  and  felicity  were  to  be 
secured^  was  left  indefinite.  Plato  expounds  his  con- 
ception of  the  soul  of  man.  after  death  in  the  form  of  a 


186  PAUL   OF  TARSUS. 

Yision,  vouchsafed  to  Er  the  Armenian  —  a  myth  which, 
probably,  had  a  Syrian  origin.  But,  while  the  psycho- 
logical existence  of  the  human  soul  was  affirmed,  the 
physiological  conditions  of  its  existence  are  ignored. 
The  good  are  rewarded,  the  bad  are  punished.  But 
how  do  the  former  apprehend  their  feUcity?  how  do 
the  latter  become  sensible  of  their  misery?  To  know 
and  to  feel,  to  enjoy  and  to  endure,  to  be  sad  and  to  be 
happy,  require  the  existence  of  some  organization, 
through  and  by  which  the  man  receives  his  impres- 
sions. The  road  of  knowledge  is  by  experience  and 
sensation.  How  can  a  disembodied  spirit  preserve  its 
consciousness,  which  is  its  being?  The  instinct  which 
refuses  to  acknowledge  annihilation  is  intelligible,  but 
what  is  the  process  by  which  identity  is  secured  ? 

With  this  difficulty  Paul  attempted  to  grapple. 
Nothing  appears  to  indicate  more  clearly  how  the 
Apostle's  mind  was  impregnated  with  the  formularies 
of  the  Peripatetic  school,  than  the  exposition  which  he 
gives  of  the  means  by  which  the  personality  of  the 
man  may  be  secured  in  the  life  to  come.  Here,  how- 
ever, it  may  be  necessary  to  say  a  few  words  on  the 
psychology  of  that  school  of  ancient  thought,  from 
which,  as  the  writer  believes,  the  phraseology  of  the 
Apostle's  statement  is  derived. 

In  the  Aristotelian  philosophy,  all  the  phenomena  of 
life  and  consciousness  were  comprised  in  one  word,  for 
which  (^^f///)  there  is  no  English  equivalent.  Perhaps 
the  nearest  is  "the  vital  princiiDle."  The  word  is 
applied  to  the  spontaneous  development  of  any  organ- 


TEE  ARISTOTELIAN  PSYCEOLOGY.        187 

ism  wlintever  with  which  Aristotle  was  experimentally 
familiar.  Had  he  been  acquainted  with  the  laws  of 
crystallization,  there  is  every  reason  to  think  that  he 
would  have  extended  the  application  of  the  word  so  as 
to  include  this  development^  for  he  does  not  confine  his 
term  to  the  phenomena  of  volition  only. 

The  Aristotelian  philosophy  takes  cognizance  of  the 
facts  of  life  and  nature.  But  it  takes  no  note  of  the 
transcendental  and  supernatural.  It  is  entirely  sub- 
jective,—  entertaining  no  other  evidence  than  that  of 
sensation  and  consciousness,  if,  indeed,  it  makes  any 
marked  distinction  between  these  two  terms.  It  is 
possible,  the  philosopher  argues,  that  there  may  be  a 
life  of  the  man  which  transcends  experience.  It  is  cer- 
tainly unpoj^ular  to  dispute  the  opinion  that  the  man  is 
immortal,  though  the  body  perishes.  But  of  such  an 
existence  there  is  no  evidence.  Nay,  it  is  impossible  to 
conceive  how  it  may  be,  however  much  we  believe  that 
it  is,  because  we  are  familiar  only  with  the  machinery 
by  which  impressions  are  received  and  by  which 
thought  is  evolved  from  those  impressions.  The  instru- 
ment of  thought  is  in  the  body,  and  the  body  perishes. 

The  general  principle  of  life,  or  of  spontaneous  as 
opposed  to  derivative  motion,  exhibits  various  stages  of 
development,  fi*om  mere  growth  to  appetite  and  will. 
The  highest  manifestation  of  life,  that  of  man,  includes 
the  phenomena  of  the  more  imperfect  forms  of  exist- 
ence. Man,  besides  his  own  proper  organism,  has  that 
of  the  brute  and  the  plant ;  he  grows  and  feels  as  well 
as   thinks.     The  Aristotelian   psychology,  in  brief,  is 


188  PAUL    OF  TARSUS. 

incomplete  Darwinism,  differing  from  it  mainly  in  the 
foct,  that  the  progression  of  existence  is  conceived  as 
co-ordinate,  instead  of  being  due  to  natural  selection, 
— this  phrase  being  a  euphemism  for  the  fact  that  the 
strong  prey  on  the  weak,  or  at  least  narrow  those 
opportunities  of  life  which  the  weak  would  have  in  the 
absence  of  the  strong. 

Such  an  organization  Paul  recognizes  as  a  "  natural 
body."  But  he  assumes  that  this  natural  body  contains 
the  germ  of  a  higher  organization,  which  is  destined  to 
receive  that  part  of  man's  complex  nature,  "  his  spirit," 
and  which  survives  dissolution.  The  difference  be- 
tween the  man  of  physical  creation,  and  the  man  of 
the  new  or  spiritual  creation,  lies  in  the  fact  that  the 
former  is  life,  the  latter  spirit.  The  former  is  of  the 
earth,  is  the  vessel  of  the  potter.  The  latter  is 
the  Lord  from  heaven.  The  realities  of  physical  exist- 
ence are  distinct  from  those  of  the  heavenly  nature, 
though  Christianity  is  the  exaltation  of  the  former  to 
the  latter.  To  them  who  are  regenerate  the  higher 
life  is  potentially  present,  whether  they  have  died  or 
are  alive.  This  only  is  sure,  that  when  He  comes,  the 
transformation  will  be  instantaneous  and  complete. 
The  dead  will  rise  in  theii*  new  nature,  tl^e  living  will 
be  changed.  The  risen  Christ  is  the  exemplar  and  pro- 
totype of  that  glorious  body  which  man  will  receive  in 
exchange  for  the  weakness  of  his  present  habitation, 
and  in  which  he  will  preserve  his  individuality.  The 
hope,  however,  of  this  resurrection  seems  to  be  limited 
—  for  the  language  used  by  Paul  is  sometimes  perplexed 


PAUrS   THEORY  OF  RESURRECTION.     189 

and  ambiguous  —  to  those  who  are  regenerate,  in  whom 
is  sown  that  germ  of  a  new  hfe  which  endures  beyond 
death  and  the  grave,  and  in  the  cons<3iousness  of  which 
the  Christian  can  exult  over  his  last  and  his  greatest 
enemies. 

St.  Paul  does  not  accept  that  coarser  theory  of  a 
resurrection  which  confers  on  the  spirit  of  man  the 
same  organism  that  he  had  and  used  during  life.  It 
must  be  something  wholly  different.  It  seems  likely 
that  this  idea  of  the  spiritual  body  —  though  it  had  not 
been  unfamiUar  to  him  in  the  school  of  Gamaliel  —  was 
framed  on  the  vision  which  he  had  seen  on  the  road  to 
Damascus,  and  which  was  impressed  so  indelibly  on  his 
memory.  Christ  is  in  the  heavens,  the  place  of  light, 
from  whence  comes  life.  Hence,  relieved  of  the  ordi- 
nary conditions  under  which  the  human  body  is  limited 
by  the  grossness  of  its  nature  to  one  spot,  He  can  show 
Himself  in  his  glory  to  the  furious  enemy  who  is  after- 
wards to  become  the  faithful  Apostle  —  can  warn,  re- 
prove, console,  instruct  him.  And  though  we  have  no 
knowledge  of  what  that  nature  is,  we  do  know  this, 
that  we  shall  be  like  Him.  It  is  plain  that  the  Apostle 
had  identified  the  doctrine  of  man's  immortality  with 
the  resurrection  of  Jesus,  and  that  he  therefore  holds  a 
middle  position  to  that  immortality  of  the  pure  intelli- 
gence which  the  Greek  philosopher  and  the  Jewish 
allegorist  of  Alexandria  accepted,  and  to  that  perpe- 
tuity of  physical  impulses  and  feelings  which  has  been 
frequently  held  by  Christian  teachers  of  a  later  epoch, 
and  also  believed  by  many  uncivilized  races,  to  consti- 


190  PAUL    OF   TARSUS. 

tute  the  only  true  immortality  of  man.  Many  of  these 
creeds,  which  strongly  affirm  the  spirituality  of  God,  as 
strongly  affirm  a  material,  and  even  sensuous  resurrec- 
tion. This,  as  is  well  known,  is  peculiarly  the  case 
with  Mohammedanism.  Our  own  age  and  race  have 
developed  a  still  grosser  theory  in  Mormonism,  which 
asserts  the  being  of  a  material  god,  and  promises  its 
devotees  a  voluptuous  immortality. 

The  researches  of  modern  science  have  shown  that 
the  earth  is  a  vast  graveyard,  wherein  are  buried  not 
only  the  bodies  of  innumerable  creatures,  but  where 
extinct  forms  of  life,  more  numerous  by  far  than  all 
existing  organisms,  lie  entombed.  Man,  the  latest  born 
of  these  forms,  has  inherited  for  his  portion  the  sep- 
ulchre of  a  thousand  successive  worlds.  The  eternal 
hills  of  his  experience  are,  in  comparison  with  regions 
which  look  far  less  permanent,  recent  structures,  built  by 
some  vast  upheaval  out  of  the  bed  of  a  deep  but  geo- 
logically modern  sea.  The  only  unchanged  form  is  the 
ever-shifting  ocean,  which  has  at  one  time  engulfed,  at 
another  relinquished  the  land  here  and  there.  And  the 
succession  of  these  epochs  involves  so  prolonged  a 
period  of  time,  that  the  mind  is  wholly  lost  in  attempt- 
ing to  give  reality  to  that  which  is  as  illimitable  as 
space.  Creation  reaches  back  through  an  incalculable 
series  of  years,  during  which  the  earth,  now  shaken  by 
internal  fire,  now  reeking  with  a  continuous  summer, 
now  bound  in  permanent  winter,  was  rushing  round 
the  sun,  and  hurrying  with  the  company  of  its  fellow- 
planets  through  space.     The  beginning  is  infinitely  dis- 


TEACHINGS   OF  MODERN  SCIENCE.       191 

tant.  Man  is  a  being  of  yesterday,  even  when  the 
remotest  period  which  modern  speculation  suggests  is 
assigned  to  his  appearance  on  the  earth.  There  are  a 
few  inhabitants  of  the  primeval  seas  which  have  pre- 
served their  organisms,  which  have  remained  unaltered 
through  these  multitudinous  cataclysms  which  have 
overtaken  the  earth,  through  those  furious  storms  which 
at  various  periods  have  desolated  creation.  But  man 
has  only  appeared  in  the  most  recent  epoch  of  the 
world's  history.  Can  his  existence  be  the  sign  of  the 
world's  last  renovation,  of  a  peaceful  and  steady  growth, 
the  consummation  of  which  is  a  new  heavens  and  a 
new  earth?  To  the  men  of  the  apostolic  age,  the 
earth  had  waxed  old,  and  was  ready  to  pass  away.  If 
we,  so  many  centuries  after  their  time,  hold  to  their 
faith,  the  race  of  man  was  in  the  infancy  of  its  true 
destiny,  was  commencing  its  career,  whe-n  they  taught 
that  the  end  of  all  things  was  at  hand. 

Had  the  ficts  of  modern  science  been  unveiled  to 
the  eyes  of  Paul,  it  does  not  appear  that  his  exposition 
of  the  resurrection  would  have  been  different.  It  may 
be  true,  he  might  have  answered,  that  the  experience 
which  we  have  of  life  connects  it  with  an  organism 
which  is  born,  grows,  decays,  perishes.  But  the  expe- 
rience which  we  appeal  to  is  assuredly  bounded.  We 
may  assert,  but  erroneously,  that  no  other  being  exists 
beyond  that  which  we  can  comprehend.  There  are, 
may  be,  other  forms  in  which  life  is  continued,  nay  is 
exalted,  of  which  our  faculties  are  not  and  cannot  be 
cognizant,  but  after  which  the  soul,  the  heart,  the  spirit 


192  PAUL    OF  TARSUS. 

of  man  strives,  in  which  it  trusts  that  it  may  escape 
annihilation.  This  eager  search  after  hfe  and  immor- 
tahty  is  the  germ  of  that  perpetual  and  unchangeable 
existence  which  resides  in  this  body  of  death,  which 
ever  prompts  the  man  to  treat  his  present  hfe  as  the 
preparation  for  an  unlimited  eternity.  Such  a  longing 
for  the  perfection  of  God  is  a  gift  of  unspeakable  value 
to  the  possessor,  is  a  cause  of  immeasurable  benefit  to 
man,  is  by  its  very  presence  a  pledge  that  it  will  be  cer- 
tainly satisfied,  however  little  its  fulfilment  comes  within 
the  range  of  experience,  or  agrees  with  its  inductions. 

The  Gospel  of  redemption  and  immortality  was, 
according  to  Paul's  teaching,  to  be  preached  and 
ofiered  to  all  men.  It  is  evident  that  the  Apostles  at 
Jerusalem  shrank  from  carrying  the  tenets  of  Chris- 
tianity beyond  the  pale  of  the  Jewish  nation.  The 
Acts  of  the  Apostles  gives  no  color  to  those  legends 
wliich  scatter  the  Twelve  in  various  parts  of  the  earth. 
St.  Paul's  words  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Galatians  indi- 
cate that  the  Apostles  were  at  Jerusalem  at  the  time 
of  his  conversion ;  that  they  were  there  three  years  later, 
when  he  went  up  to  visit  Peter,  but  stood  aloof  from 
them;  and  suggest  that  they  were  there  still,  fifteen 
years  after  the  first  visit,  when  the  mission  of  Paul  to 
the  Gentiles  was  finally  admitted,  the  teaching  of  the 
Jewish  converts  being  reserved  to  Peter.  The  absence, 
too,  of  any  allusion  to  any  other  apostles  in  the  other 
epistles  and  writings  of  the  Apostolic  Age,  seems  con- 
clusively to  show  that  the  Twelve  lived  together  in 
poverty  and   prayer  at  Jerusalem.     At  last,  Jerusalem 


CATHOLICITY  OF  PAUL'S  MIND.  1&3 

having  been  destroyed,  and  nearly  all  having  been  re- 
moved by  death,  John,  in  extreme  old  age,  is  said  to 
have  migrated  to  Asia  Minor. 

The  sincerity  of  conviction,  the  flexibility  of  charac- 
ter, the  sagacity  which  discerned  what  was  essential, 
the  rigor  with  which  the  essentials  of  Christianity 
were  insisted  on,  the  tact  with  which  men  are  treated, 
and  the  perfect  catholicity  of  Paul's  mind,  gifted  the 
Apostle  with  peculiar  influence  in  commending  his 
doctrine  to  the  Gentile  world.  He  is  troubled  with  no 
scruples  about  race,  rank,  sex  ;  and  he  does  not  hamper 
himself  with  any  attempt  after  effecting  a  uniformity 
among  his  disciples  or  converts.  Critics  have  affected 
to  discover  evidence  comj^romising  the  authenticity  of 
certain  epistles  —  as,  for  example,  those  to  the  Philip- 
pians,  one  to  Timothy,  and  to  Titus  —  in  the  fact  that 
a  hierarchy,  or,  at  least,  a  scheme  of  general  office- 
bearers, in  certain  churches  is  recognizable  in  these 
epistles.  By  itself,  the  objection  does  not  seem  to  pos- 
sess the  least  importance.  Had  a  particular  form  of 
church  government  been  prescribed  in  any  of  these 
epistles,  the  acceptance  of  which  was  to  be  deemed 
necessary,  or  even  important,  grave  doubts  might  well 
be  thrown  on  the  document,  or,  at  least,  on  the  passage 
in  which  such  a  rule  might  be  found.  But  Paul  was 
absolutely  indifferent  to  the  mere  organization  which  a 
Christian  society  might  adopt.  The  man  who  bade 
that  the  service  of  the  Church  should  be  conducted 
decorously  and  in  an  orderly  ffishion,  set  no  store  by 
any  particular  process  for   effecting   these    ends.     He 

9  M 


194  PAUL   OF   TARSUS. 

even  puts  little  stress  on  the  sacraments.  He  did  not, 
it  seems,  practise  baptism  himself,  except  in  rare  in- 
stances. He  makes,  except  on  one  occasion,  no  marked 
allusion  to  the  Lord's  Supper.  With  him  religion  was 
no  outward  form,  however  venerable  or  sacred  it  might 
be,  but  an  inward  Ught,  bright  enough  to  guide  the 
whole  heart  and  conscience,  and  yet  capable  of  being 
diffused  over  the  nature  of  the  humblest  and  weakest. 

The  Christianity  of  Paul  was  the  first  religion  which 
invited  all  men  into  the  brotherhood  of  the  Faith.  It 
is  true  that  it  did  not  pretend  to  attack  the  prevalent 
usages  of  society,  to  counsel  resistance  to  the  impe- 
rial system,  to  seek  reform  through  political  agencies, 
to  construct  the  secular  life  of  the  existing  generation 
anew,  to  prescribe  a  form  of  polity,  to  break  down  any 
customary  habit  which  ^s  not  in  itself  morally  vicious. 
It  was  intended  to  be  a  community  Avithin  a  commu- 
nity, which  was  aggressive  only  by  passive  resistance 
to  errors  of  opinion  and  grossness  of  practice,  W'hich  was 
intended  to  absorb,  not  to  reconstitute  society.  To 
use  a  modern  phrase,  Christianity  trusted  to  moral 
forces  only,  and  trusted  to  them  without  making  any 
reference  to  their  indirect  significance.  As  has  been 
before  observed,  the  conduct  of  the  early  Christians  was 
exceedingly  like  that  of  the  Quakers  of  Penn's  age. 
They  took  no  active  part  in  opposition  to  popular  prac- 
tices, but  protested  passively  against  them.  Hence,  at 
first  sight,  the  Christianity  of  the  Pauline  gospel  seems 
to  be  wanting  in  that  force  which  rej^robates  or  checks 
social  and  political  wrong.     Nay,  some  have  gone  so 


CHBISTIANITY  AND  SLAVERY.  195 

far  as  to  argue  that  it  condones  or  encourages  the  evil 
which  it  does  not  directly  attack.  Thus,  it  has  been 
said  to  have  counselled  acquiescence  in  slavery,  to  have 
justified  the  extravagances  of  despotism,  to  have  sub- 
stituted a  dreamy  quietism  for  that  active  resistance  to 
the  coarse  excesses  of  insolent  power  which  may  be  the 
highest  duty  that  man  can  fulfil  for  his  fellows. 

But  this  charge  is  in  many  particulars  unjust,  and 
even  unintelligent.  It  ignores  the  circumstances  of  the 
age  in  which  Christianity  was  developed.  It  ignores 
the  fact  that  the  triumphs  of  passive  resistance  are 
more  numerous,  and  have  been  more  lasting,  than  those 
of  energetic  opposition.  It  fails  to  notice  that  a  creed, 
which  puts  all  men  on  the  same  level  of  necessity,  and 
offers  all  the  same  magnificent  hopes,  is  the  heaviest 
discouragement  to  secular  distinctions.  It  does  not  ac- 
knowledge that  the  genius  of  Christianity  is  a  perpetual 
assertion  of  the  equality  of  man,  nor  see  that  it  meets 
that  haughtiness  which  affects  superiority  over  the 
general  lot  of  humanity,  —  or  which  disdains  to  ac- 
knowledge any  right  or  any  justice  which  has  not  been 
conceded  by  power,  —  with  the  example  of  Christ,  who 
made  Himself  of  no  reputation.  It  is  the  essence  of 
Christianity,  as  taught  by  Paul,  that  man  is  bound  to 
consider  his  duty  before  he  asserts  his  rights,  and  that 
there  is  no  claim  which  he  can  set  up  for  eminence, 
which  he  ought  not  to  substantiate  by  the  service  which 
he  has  done  for  it.  Hence,  the  natural  tendency  of 
the  Christian  temper  is  towards  political  and  social 
equality.     The  Judaizing  teachers  would  have  made  it 


196  PAUL   OF  TABSUS. 

communistic,  and  Paul's  good  sense  detected  the  peril 
of  such  a  theory.  If  we  look  at  his  teaching  from 
a  modem  point  of  view,  the  Apostle,  in  so  far  as  he 
contemplated  the  reconstruction  of  society  by  the  aid 
of  Christianity,  accepted  the  two  leading  conditions  of 
what  is  called  popular  government,  —  that  all  social 
distinction  should  be  personal,  and  that  it  should  be 
won  by  public  service. 

A  sufficient  refutation  of  the  statement,  that  the 
social  theory  of  primitive  Christianity  sustained  or 
encouraged  the  harshness  of  the  relations  which  sub- 
sisted between  master  and  slave,  is  to  be  found  in  the 
eagerness  with  which  the  latter  accepted  it.  Slavery, 
it  is  true,  was  a  far  less  bitter  lot  in  antiquity  than  it 
has  been  made  within  societies  which  are  professedly 
Christian.  The  emancipation  of  slaves  was  common. 
They  were  frequently  treated  with  kindness  and  con- 
sideration. They  were  permitted  to  acquire  property, 
and  even  to  purchase  their  own  fi-eedom.  Their  con- 
dition improved  under  the  empire :  for  slavery  is  never 
more  cruel  tJian  when  it  is  practised  by  a  people  hav- 
ing free  political  institutions,  is  always  least  onerous 
when  all  classes  of  society  are  in  the  grasp  of  a  common 
despotism.  It  was  made  a  social  reproach  against 
Christianity  that  it  enrolled  such  numbers  of  slaves 
among  its  members.  Bishops,  in  early  times,  were 
elected  from  this  class  of  persons.  Thus,  Callistus, 
bishop  of  Rome  218-233,  was,  according  to  Hippolytus, 
a  slave  of  one  Carpophorus,  a  confidential  person  in 
Caesar's  household ;  and,  if  we  can  trust  the  report  of 


ISLAMISM  AND   SOCIAL  EQUALITY.       197 

this  author,  who  vouches  for  his  personal  acquaintance 
with  the  facts,  he  was  a  swindler  and  knave.  There 
will  be  no  great  attraction  in  a  religion  which  does  not 
seek  to  ameliorate  the  condition  of  those  who  embrace 
it.  Besides,  it  is  known  that  from  early  times,  the  pos- 
session of  slaves  was  considered  by  Christian  writers 
and  teachers  as  contrary  to  the  Christian  notion  of  jus- 
tice, which  imposes  the  duty  of  doing  as  one  would  be 
done  by.  It  is  certain  that  this  notion  has  finally  suc- 
ceeded in  proscribing  the  practice  as  antichristian  and 
inhuman,  and  that  oppressed  races  have  to  thank  the 
teaching  of  the  New  Testament  for  immunity  from 
slavery. 

This  doctrine  of  absolute  equality  between  the  mem- 
bers of  a  common  religion  was  accepted  in  a  still  more 
practical  form  by  Mohammed  and  his  successors.  As 
the  promoters  of  this  religion  appealed  to  the  sword, 
they  were  able  to  enforce  such  a  general  equality.  It 
must  be' allowed  that  the  success  of  Mohammedanism 
was  as  much  due  to  the  promise  of  equal  privilege,  in 
the  case  of  all  who  accepted  the  new  faith,  as  it  was  to 
the  valor  and  enthusiasm  of  primitive  Islam.  The 
facility  with  which  this  religion  is  even  now  extended 
is  to  be  accounted  for  by  the  fact  that  it  is  constantly 
brought  in  contact  with  a  system  of  privileged  castes 
and  races,  and  that  it  effects  the  destruction  of  all 
these  distinctions  by  conferring  equal  dignity  on  all  its 
converts.  It  does  not  fill  within  the  compass  of  this 
work  to  discuss  the  causes  which  have  arrested  the 
civilization  which  the  Mohammedan   creed   achieved, 


198  PAUL  OF   TARSUS. 

and  which  have  even  caused  it  to  retrograde  from  the 
height  which  it  reached  ten  centuries  ago,  at  Bagdad 
and  Cordova.  It  is  sufficiently  clear  that  the  doctrine 
of  the  natural  equality  of  man  within  the  limits  of  the 
faith,  and  the  comparative  tolerance  with  which  Islam 
treated  dissentients  from  its  tenets,  account  for  the  re- 
markable phenomenon  of  a  few  Bedouins  establishing 
a  mighty  empire,  and  developing  science  and  philoso- 
phy, when  these  were  almost  unknown  names  to  a 
mediaeval  Christianity.  Nor  is  it  less  clear,  that  the 
chief  reason  of  the  decline  of  Islam  does  not  arise  from 
its  contact  with  European  civilization,  but  from  the 
barbarism  of  its  later  political  system,  and  from  the 
fanaticism  of  its  Rabbis. 

As,  according  to  Paul,  the  beginning  of  the  Chris- 
tian life  WRS  trust  in  Christ,  so  the  perseverance  of  the 
Christian  was  due  to  the  gi-ace  of  Christ,  or  as  it  is 
sometimes  called,  the  Spirit  of  Christ.  The  teaching 
of  the  book  of  Proverbs  personified  the  wisdom  of 
God ;  the  communications  made  from  the  Almighty 
to  the  Prophets  of  the  Jewish  monarchy,  of  the  cap- 
tivity, and  of  the  restoration,  were  effected  by  the 
instrumentality  of  the  Word  of  God ;  and  these  con- 
ceptions were  still  more  fully  solidified  in  the  book  of 
Sirach,  in  the  Wisdom  of  Solomon,  and  in  the  Alex- 
andrian theosophy.  That  God  theiefore  visited  man 
by  the  instruments  whom  He  had  created  or  chosen, 
was  a  familiar  form  of  thought  to  the  Jews  of  the 
Christian  era ;  and  when  Paul  speaks  of  Jesus  as  the 
power  by  which  the  union  between  God  and  man  was 


NEED   OF  A   MEDIATOR.  199 

achieved,  he  is  using  langunge  which  was  perfectly  in- 
telligible to  his  hearers.  In  course  of  time  the  Word 
of  God  had  ceased  to  be  an  abstraction,  and  was  con- 
ceived to  be  a  Person.  But  the  Personification  was 
complete  when  this  conception  was  united  to  an  his- 
torical man,  who  alone  among  men  had,  after  suffering 
the  common  lot  of  humanity,  vanquished  the  common 
enemy,  was  risen,  was  glorified,  was  out  of  the  domin- 
ion of  death,  and  had  become  the  assurance  of  life  and 
immortality. 

If  men  have  any  belief  in  God,  and  if  they  acknowl- 
edge, in  their  relations  to  Him,  any  thing  beyond  what 
is  purely  secular — if  they  do  not  allow  His  personal 
existence  to  disappear  in  Pantheistic  generalities,  thev 
are  forced  to  recognize  some  mediator  between  them- 
selves and  Him.  Thus,  in  the  language  of  Paul,  Moses 
was  the  mediator  between  the  God  of  the  Hebrews 
and  that  people,  as  Mohammed  is  said  to  be  to  Islam. 
So,  in  a  far  higher  sense,  because  gifted  with  a  far  more 
exalted  being,  Christ  is  the  Mediator  of  the  new  cov- 
enant, as  well  as  the  great  atonement  for  mankind. 
And  just  as,  during  His  life  on  earth,  His  gospel 
formed  a  perfect  rule  of  life  —  a  sufficient  exposition 
of  the  faith  —  a  full  ground  of  hope,  so  He  is  present  by 
His  power.  His  Spirit,  ^is  grace,  though  He  no  longer 
appears  to  the  ordinary  vision  of  men.  He  is  known 
better  to  the  believer  than  He  was  known  to  His  disciples 
in  the  days  of  His  flesh.  Whatever  other  intermediary 
there  might  have  been  previously  between  God  and 
man,  such  agencies  are  superfluous  in  the  spiritual  pres- 


200  PAUL    OF   TARSUS. 

ence  and  life-giving  power  of  Christ.  He  unites  all  the 
imperfect  and  divided  functions  of  priest,  angel,  spirit, 
in  the  intercourse  which  he  holds  with  his  people,  —  in 
the  grace,  peace,  strength,  hope,  which  He  gives  them. 
No  phrase  is  too  strong  to  express  the  j^ower  which  He 
wields,  the  authority  which  He  possesses,  the  gifts  and 
graces  which  He  can  bestow.  He  lifts  men  from  the 
sin  and  weakness  of  their  mortal  nature,  bestows  on 
them  a  new  creation,  reconciles  them  to  God,  supports 
and  strengthens  them  in  the  toil  of  a  transitory  life, 
and  conducts  them  finally  to  the  presence  of  His  Fa- 
ther and  theirs. 

Paul  dwells  but  little  on  the  alternative  to  this  pic- 
ture of  the  Christian  life.  The  world  around  him  was 
full  of  sin  and  wickedness,  of  ignorance  and  deformity. 
There  are  those  who  have  no  place  in  the  kingdom,  who 
have  no  inheritance  with  the  saints, —  with  those  who 
have  been  made  holy  by  the  sacrifice  of  Christ  and  by 
trust  in  Him ;  but  very  little  is  said  of  such  persons, 
apart  from  reprobation  of  their  life.  The  Apostle  does 
not  dwell  upon  the  lot  of  the  unblest  —  does  not  attempt 
to  describe  the  condition  of  those  who  are  cast  away. 
He  is  not  responsible  for  those  theories  of  endless  tor- 
ment inflicted  on  unforgiven  sin,  still  less  for  that 
scheme  of  the  Divine  justice  and  mercy,  which  would, 
in  accordance  with  no  moral  sentiment  whatever, 
capriciously  condemn  some '  persons  to  eternal  banish- 
ment from  the  sight  of  God,  to  the  perpetual  company 
of  mocking  and  malignant  fiends.  Christ  died  for  the 
godless  ;  His  love  is  sufiicient  for  the  salvation  of  the 


CHRISTIANITTS  DEBT  TO  PAUL.  201 

whole  human  race.  It  is  enough  to  know  how  great 
is  His  mercy  to  those  who  love  Him.  It  is  superfluous 
to  inquire  into  the  future  condition  of  those  who  dis- 
regard His  Gospel,  still  more  so  to  speculate  on  the  lot 
of  such  men  as  have  never  heard  the  Word.  Nay, 
if  love  be  the  most  enduring  of  the  Christian  graces 
— living  when  trust  is  realized,  and  hope  is  satisfied  — 
and  if  this  be  the  chief  attribute  of  God  and  His  Son, 
it  is  incredible  that  he  should  be  pitiless  who  com- 
mands pardon  and  i3ity  as  the  best  offering  which  man 
can  make  Him.  The  Gospel  which  Paul  preached  has 
much  to  win  men,  little  to  terrify  them.  The  pre- 
sumptuous insolence  which  seeks  to  make  the  Almighty 
the  author  of  uncharitable  and  merciless  judgment  was 
unknown  to  the  man  who  was  all  things  to  all  men,  in 
order  that  he  might  gain  some,  and  who  believed  that 
he  had  the  mind  of  Christ. 

Christianity  owes  the  form  which  it  has  assumed, 
when  it  has  been  best  interpreted,  to  the  Pauline 
scriptures.  The  gospels  give  us  a  history,  in  which 
the  facts  of  a  life,  the  sayings  and  lessons  of  a  great 
Teacher  are  narrated.  But,  except  in  the  fourth  gos- 
pel, the  theology  of  the  narrative  does  not  develop 
much  more  religion  than  can  be  found  in  the  pages  of  the 
evangelical  prophets.  With  the  first  three  evangelists, 
Christ  is  the  last,  though  incomparably  the  greatest,  of 
those  to  whom  the  Vision  of  God  was  vouchsafed,  in 
whom  the  Spirit  of  God  was  manifested.  In  the  fourth 
gospel.  He  is  the  Word  incarnate,  in  whom  exist  the 
loftiest  powers,  —  who  is  with  God  fi'om  the  beginning, 
9* 


202  PAUL   OF  TABS  US. 

—  who  IS  in  full  communion  with  the  Everlasting  Fa- 
ther, —  who  has  life  from  the  Father  in  Himself,  as  the 
Father  Himself  is  the  source  and  centre  of  all  life. 

In  the  gos2:)el  of  Paul,  Christ  is  an  Example,  but  also 
a  Power.  He  is  the  source  of  man's  salvation,  and  the 
origin  of  all  graces.  Paul  tells  ns  that  he  announced 
a  simple  creed,  —  that  "  Christ  died  for  our  sins  accord- 
ing to  the  Scriptures ;  that  he  was  buried,  and  rose 
again  the  third  day,  according  to  the  Scriptures ; "  and 
that  abundant  evidence  was  supplied  to  the  fact.  This 
is  his  gospel.  Out  of  it  he  constructed  his  theology, 
by  it  he  insisted  that  the  reconciliation  between  the 
creature  and  Creator  was  effected.  This  is  the  chief 
element  which  he  imports  into  the  ancient  doctrines  of 
the  Hebrew  Scriptures,  as  they  were  understood  by 
the  doctors  of  the  Christian  era.  God  is  still  there,  as 
He  is  described  in  the  Prophets,  a  Being  of  infinite 
love,  jjatience,  gentleness.  The  commandment  of  God 
is  still  imperative  on  man,  and  must  be  interpreted,  as 
heretofore,  by  its  real  spirit.  Only  the  Law  is  done 
away  —  the  ritual  of  Moses  —  its  ordinances,  sacrifices, 
ceremonies,  with  all  the  glosses  of  tradition.  Not,  indeed 
that  the  repeal  of  these  enactments,  the  abandonment 
of  this  symbolism,  is  to  inaugurate  a  period  of  license 

—  to  release  man  from  his  allegiance  to  that  spiritual 
religion  which  purifies  the  heart.  Far  from  it.  The 
epistles  of  Paul  abound  with  directions  as  to  how  man 
may  live  holily,  reiterate  the  obligations  of  those  who 
ally  themselves  to  this  new  religion.  Every  one  of 
the  relations  of  domestic  and  social  life  pass  under  the 


CHRISTIANITY  ACCORDING   TO  PAUL.      203 

Apostle's  review,  and  are  commented  on  repeatedly. 
The  Christianity  which  he  taught  does  not  inform  men 
that  the  acceptance  of  certain  tenets  can  be  made  sub- 
stitutes for-  the  regular  fulfilment  of  moral  duties  — 
that  obedience  to  stated  ceremonies  is  the  obedience 
with  which  God  is  satisfied,  or  is  in  itself  a  purification. 
He  allows  no  man  to  say  Corhan^  and  thus  pretend  that 
a  gift  to  the  altar  is  a  release  from  human  ties.  He 
exacts  honest,  persevering,  intelligent  work,  as  strictly 
as  a  political  economist  does.  He  knew  that  the 
largest  power  of  doing  good  was  contingent  on  the 
fulfilment  of  very  homely  and  every-day  ofiices  —  that 
few  men  are  able  to  do  real  public  service  who  neglect 
their  ordinary  business,  and  sacrifice  common  sense  to 
some  ideal  wish.  He  had  too  much  practical  wisdom 
to  be  ignorant  of  the  fact,  that  a  man  is  not  the  worse 
Christian  because  he  masters  the  cares  of  this  life  by 
his  diligence,  and  that  the  best  way  to  use  one's  sub- 
stance well,  is  to  earn  one's  substance  honestly.  That 
which  binds  the  whole  of  Christianity  together  — 
which  effects  the  unity  of  redeemed  humanity  —  which 
constitutes  the  Church  —  is  the  presence,  the  indwell- 
ing of  Christ.  In  this  Christ  are  united  all  the  power 
which  God  has  given  or  will  give,  and  all  the  tender- 
ness of  that  devoted  and  ceaseless  love  which  made 
Him  a  sacrifice  for  man.  But  the  gospel  of  Paul  is 
neither  ascetic,  nor  contemplative,  nor  dogmatic.  Man 
is  illuminated,  not  to  dream,  but  to  labor.  He  is  to 
earn  his  living  —  to  seek  by  the  toil  of  his  life  the 
means  for  conferring  benefits  on  others,  —  to  work  out 


204  PAUL    OF   TARSUS. 

his  own  salvation,  to  seek  the  salvation  of  others,  and, 
as  he  best  may,  to  commend  his  faith  by  the  diligence, 
holiness,  and  perseverance  of  his  life. 

It  has  been  said  truly  by  M.  Yacherot,  that  Paul  was 
the  greatest  of  innovators  and  the  least  of  sectaries. 
His  gospel  was  intended  for  all  mankind.  The  hopes 
which  he  held  out  to  those  who  believed  were  not 
bounded  by  caste,  or  race,  or  sex,  or  condition  of  life, 
or  age,  or  habit  of  thought,  or  power  of  thought.  Had 
it  been  possible  for  those  who  constructed  a  theology 
fi'om  his  writings  to  have  apprehended  the  spirit  in 
which  those  writings  were  composed,  the  world  would 
have  had  a  different  history.  The  disciples  of  a  great 
teacher,  however,  are  not  those  who  learn  his  formula- 
ries, and  busy  themselves  with  methodizing  his  prin- 
ciples, but  they  who  seek  to  gather  to  themselves  the 
mind  of  the  teacher,  who  are  followers  of  him  in  his 
attempt  to  evangelize  the  world. 

But,  in  fact,  the  dogmas  which  have  been  defended 
by  the  teaching  of  St.  Paul,  are  not  contained  in  his 
wiitings,  but  are  developments  for  which  those  who 
propounded  or  accepted  them  strove  to  find  proof  or 
warranty.  The  Christianity  of  many  modern  sectaries 
is  like  the  Salaminian  ship,  which,  still  pretending  to  be 
the  vessel  which  carried  Theseus,  has  now,  by  reason  of 
perj^etual  repairs  and  additions,  little  left  of  the  original 
timber.  For  Paul  is  not,  technically  speaking,  a  theolo- 
gian, since  his  theology  is,  except  in  one  important 
particular,  that  of  Gamaliel  and  the  other  orthodox 
teachers  of  later  Judaism.     Even  after  his  conversion 


NATURE   OF  PAUL'S    TEACHING.  205 

he  could  call  himself  a  Pharisee.  Upon  Judaism  he 
induced  the  office  of  Christ,  as  the  only  and  the  com- 
plete solution  of  the  question  which  had  long  agitated 
all  religious  minds,  —  How  can  man  be  saved  ?  This 
question  is  still  asked  by  those  who  have  repudiated 
Christianity,  and,  denying  the  immortality  of  the  indi- 
vidual, assume  the  immortality  of  the  race.  And  these 
persons  answer  the  question  in  the  same  manner  that 
Paul  does,  —  that  man  in  the  aggregate  is  made  perfect 
by  the  sacrifice  of  man,  —  that  humanity  gains  by  them 
w^ho  offer  themselves  as  victims  for  its  moral  progress. 
Both  agree  that  no  good  deed  is  wasted ;  but  the  Apos- 
tle of  the  Gentiles,  while  he  insists  on  the  conditions 
w^hich  govern  the  regeneration  of  mankind,  claims  that 
a  recompense  remains  for  them  who  have  devoted 
themselves  on  behalf  of  their  fellows,  and  that  the 
identity  of  the  agent  is  as  enduring  as  the  force  of 
the  action. 

It  is  part  of  the  irony  of  history,  that  men  are 
often  credited  w^ith  opinions  and  motives  which  never 
controlled,  or  even  influenced  them.  Of  this  perverse 
judgment,  popular  ideas  about  the  Apostle  Paul  are 
conspicuous  instances.  He  is  sometimes  considered  as 
the  author  of  those  subtleties  which  took  their  rise  in 
Alexandria,  after  Christianity  was  made  to  contribute 
to  the  syncretic  philosophy  of  Philo,  and  which  culmi- 
nated in  the  dialectical  refinements  of  the  fourth  and 
fifth  centuries.  He  is  really  a  preacher  who  took  Jew- 
ish monotheism,  engrafted  on  it  those  limitless  energies 
which  he  recognized  in  the  mediation  of  Christ,  and 


206  PAUL   OF  TARSUS, 

inculcated  an  intensely  spiritual,  as  well  as  an  exactly 
practical  morality.  He  is  occasionally  spoken  of  as  an 
egotist.  But  he  was  really  a  man  of  great  judgment 
and  gentleness,  of  attractive  manners,  of  immense 
activity,  —  one  side  of  whose  nature  was  occupied  by 
an  absorbing  love  of  Christ,  the  other  by  a  passionate 
longing  to  communicate  the  joys  and  hopes  which  he 
entertained  as  widely  as  possible  throughout  a  suffering 
world. 


CHAPTER  YL 

''  I  ^HE  apocryphal  or  legendary  literature  of  early 
-■-  Christianity  is  very  copious.  Much  has  been 
already  printed,  and  additions  are  constantly  made  to 
what  is  known.  Dr.  Tischendorf  has  lately  collected  a 
fresh  volume  of  these  writings.  But  his  publication 
probably  embraces  only  a  part  of  that  which  still  exists 
in  manuscript.  If  all  these  relics  of  theological 
romance  were  collected,  they  would  form  only  a 
small  fragment  of  what  has  been  written.  Some  of 
these  writings  enshrine  historical  facts  and  genuine 
traditions.  According  to  the  modern  canons  of  criti- 
cism, the  fact  that  a  story  is  unknown  out  of'  the  par- 
ticular region  in  which  it  is  current,  rouses  a  suspicion 
of  its  genuineness,  which  is  quite  distinct  from  its 
intrinsic  likelihood  or  improbability.  But  modern 
criticism  is,  perhaps,  apt,  in  interpreting  the  genuine- 
ness of  records,  to  be  led  into  conceiving  that  the 
writings  of  ancient  authors  were  constructed  on  the 
method  employed  in  our  own  day.  In  much  ancient 
history,  when  the  writer  lives  amid  or  near  the  events 
which  he  narrates,  the  facts  are  subordinated  to  the 
inference,  or  colored  and  selected  to  assist  the  infer- 
ence.   But  the  narrative  may  still  be  a  real  reflection 


208  PAUL   OF  TARSUS. 

of  the  age  in  which  it  is  written.  It  seems  an  ex- 
travagance of  scepticism  to  look  on  the  Annals  of 
Tacitus  as  little  better  than  a  political  romance,  the 
biographies  of  Suetonius  as  a  mere  epitome  of  court 
scandal. 

These  apocryphal  w^ritings  of  early  Christianity  may 
be  subjected  to  one  easy  test.  The  dramatic  tendency 
which  certainly  influences  the  authors  of  these  narra- 
tives generally  supplies  the  means  for  detecting  the 
age  of  the  story,  and  sometimes  the  motive  for  its  com- 
position. We  have  historical  evidence  of  the  growth 
of  theological  dogma ;  and  when  divisions  arose  in  the 
Church,  during  the  time  that  dogmas  were  being  crys- 
tallized, the  temptation  to  make  the  story  a  vehicle  for 
the  transmission  or  defence  of  a  dogma  was  irresistible. 
The  absence  of  dogmatic  coloring  is  not  a  proof  of 
the  authenticity  of  such  writings,  but  is  good  evidence 
of  their  antiquity. 

Some  Tof  the  most  ancient  of  these  compositions, — 
as  the  Pastor  of  Hernias,  and  the  epistle  of  Barnabas, 
—  were  introduced  into  early  manuscripts  of  the  New 
Testament  Scriptures,  and,  for  a  time  at  least,  were 
received  as  authorities.  Some  of  these,  which  a  later 
criticism  accepted  as  canonical,  were  rejected  or  sus- 
pected in  an  earlier  age,  as  for  example  the  Apocalypse. 
It  is  not  unlikely  that  this  acceptance  or  rejection  was 
due,  in  the  first  instance,  to  the  fact  that  some  had  been 
widely  distributed  and  others  had  only  a  local  circula- 
tion. 

Among    the    earliest   specimens   of   this  legendary 


PAUL'S   PERSONAL   APPEARANCE.         209 

literature,  is  a  story  entitled  the  Acts  of  Paul  and 
Thecla.  The  story,  alluded  to  by  Tertullian,  has 
latterly  been  republished  in  the  original  Greek,  by  Dr. 
Tischendorf.  It  is  a  narrative  of  the  suiferings  under- 
gone by  a  damsel  of  Iconiura,  who  had  heard  the 
preaching  of  St.  Paul,  and  who  resolved  to  abandon  all 
—  lover,  home,  friends  —  for  the  sake  of  the  gospel 
which  he  preached,  and  in  honor  of  the  preacher.  The 
earnest  and  self-denying  attachment  which  the  early 
Christians  bore  to  their  teachers  in  the  Faith,  is 
frequently  alluded  to  by  the  Apostle,  and  is  scornfully 
commented  on  by  Lucian,  in  his  narrative  of  the 
exploits  of  the  charlatan  Peregrinus.  Thecla,  like 
Lydia,  was  one  of  those  female  converts  of  i^rimitive 
Christianity,  whose  heart  the  Lord  opened,  and  who 
ministered  to  the  wants  of  the  apostles. 

The  Acts  of  Thecla  give  a  portrait-description  of  the 
Apostle's  person  and  physiognomy.  This  description 
is  probably  the  origin  of  those  other  accounts  of  Paul's 
appearance  in  the  flesh,  which  are  found,  for  example, 
in  John  Malalas  and  Mcephorus.  He  was,  we  are  told, 
short  in  stature,  almost  bald,  bow-legged,  stout,  with 
eyebrows  meeting,  and  with  a  prominent  nose.  Other 
accounts  add  that  he  had  small  but  piercing  gray  eyes. 
His  manner  was,  it  is  said,  singularly  winning.  His 
face  and  figure  must  have  been  markedly  of  the  He- 
brew type.  He  has  himself  commented  on  the  mean- 
ness of  his  personal  appearance,  and  the  unattractive 
delivery  which  characterized  his  speech.  To  translate 
his  homely  phrase,  his  oratory,  he  says,  was  nothing  to 


210  PAUL    OF   TARSUS. 

speak  of.  But  he,  nevertheless,  could  call  to  witness 
the  success  of  his  ministry,  when  he  claimed  to  possess 
a  transcendent  treasure,  enclosed  though  it  was  in  an 
earthen  vessel.  The  poverty  of  the  casket  served  to 
assist  the  lustre  of  the  jewel  it  contained,  the  plainness 
of  the  setting  called  attention  to  the  worth  of  the  gem. 
The  great  A2:)ostle,  then,  was  a  man  who  did  not 
possess  the  two  gifts  which  were  most  prized  in  the 
ancient  world  —  personal  beauty  and  fluency  of  speech. 
He  did  not  command  attention  by  the  majesty  of  his 
person,  or  rivet  attention  by  the  eloquence  of  his  utter- 
ances. To  outward  appearance,  he  must  have  looked 
like  some  common-place  travelling  Jew,  whose  rapid 
and  confused  speech  provoked  the  Athenians  into 
calling  him  a  blabbler,  when,  quitting  his  ordinary 
province,  —  that  of  arguing  with  the  Jews  and  their 
proselytes  in  the  synagogue,  —  he  essayed  to  dispute 
with  the  polished  loungers  in  the  Athenian  agora. 
But  this  speech,  homely,  unadorned,  rugged  as  it  might 
have  been,  possessed  two  characteristics  which  are 
more  persuasive  than  the  subtlest  oratory.  The  speaker 
was  thoroughly  convinced  of  that  which  he  said,  and 
profoundly  in  earnest  when  he  commended  his  convic- 
tions to  others.  The  great  master  of  ancient  eloquence 
said  that  dramatic  action  was  the  first,  second,  third 
requisite  of  successful  pleading ;  but  no  art  can  rival  in 
its  effects  the  outspoken  utterances  of  disinterested 
sincerity,  no  address  is  more  certain  to  command  the 
sympathy  of  an  audience,  than  that  of  a  man  who 
pleads  from  his  heart. 


HIS   BIRTHPLACE  AND  LINEAGE.  211 

Paul  was  born  at  Tarsus,  a  city  of  Cilicia,  —  no  mean 
city,  as  the  Apostle  called  it,  with  the  natural  feeling  of 
a  man  for  his  birthplace,  and  the  home  of  his  childhood. 
The  city  was  built  on  a  plain  at  the  foot  of  Mount  Tau- 
rus, and  through  it  flowed  the  stream  of  the  Cydnus, 
which,  rising  in  the  snows  of  the  mountain,  and  gushing 
through  deep  ravines,  was  notable  for  the  coldness  of 
its  waters.  The  river,  says  Strabo,  divides  the  town, 
and  the  gymnasium  of  the  youths  was  on  its  bank. 

The  same  author  informs  us,  —  writing  at  a  time 
when  St.  Paul  must  have  been  a  child  in  this  Cilician 
city,  —  that  the  inhabitants  of  Tarsus  were  so  ad- 
dicted to  philosophy,  and  took  such  a  general  interest 
in  every  branch  of  education,  that  the  reputation  of  the 
city  exceeded  even  that  of  Athens  and  Alexandria  — 
the  great  centres  of  intellectual  activity  and  of  high 
culture.  And  it  is  remarkable,  continues  this  authority, 
that  the  students  are  not  strangers  who  visit  the  city,  as 
they  do  at  most  of  these  ancient  academies,  but  are  the 
natives  of  the  district;  most  of  whom,  when  they  have 
gained  the  learning  which  the  schools  of  Tarsus  supply 
them  with,  migrate  to  other  places,  and  rarely  return. 

There  is  very  little  recorded  about  the  family  of  Paul. 
He  tells  us  himself,  that  he  was  of  pure  Hebrew  de- 
scent, the  phrase  that  he  uses  being  probably  the  equiv- 
alent of  that  which  a  Spaniard  took  pride  in  when  he 
called  himself  an  old  Christian.  He  was  of  the  tribe  of 
Benjamin,  and  was  perhaps  named  after  the  gallant, 
wilful  king  whose  chivalry,  comeliness  and  lofty  stature 
were  so  exceptional.     We  are  informed  that  his  father 


212  PAUL   OF   TARSUS. 

belonged  to  the  strictest  school  of  the  Pharisaic  sect, 
and  that  his  son  was  reared  in  the  same  discipline. 
We  know  flirther,  that  his  father  was  a  Roman  citizen, 
either  by  purchase  or  grant.  Add  the  facts  that  his 
sister  had  a  son,  who  either  lived  at  Jerusalem,  or,  as  is 
equally  probable,  had  come  up  to  the  holy  city  at  the 
time  when  his  uncle  made  his  last  unfortunate  visit 
there,  and  that  he  had  five  other  kinsmen,  two  of  whom 
had  become  Christians  before  himself,  and  all  that  we 
know  of  his  family  is  told.  The  alternative  name  of 
the  Apostle,  that  by  which  he  is  best  known,  was  ai> 
parently  part  of  the  Gentile  name,  by  which,  in  con- 
formity with  Roman  usage,  the  citizen  was  designated. 
Paulus  is  a  cognomen  shared  by  many  families,  as 
might  have  been  easily  the  case,  for  it  means  a  person 
of  small  stature,  and  such  nicknames  were  common  in 
the  days  of  republican  Rome.  Silas  or  Silvanus,  a 
companion  of  St.  Paul,  was  similarly  a  Roman  citizen, 
and  so,  it  would  seem,  was  Lucas  or  Lucanus,  whom  we 
know  as  the  third  Evangelist,  and  the  author  of  the 
work  called  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  in  which  are  con- 
tained a  few  selected  incidents  of  the  Apostolic  age. 
Paulus  is  only  one  of  three  Roman  names  which  the 
Apostle  bore.     We  know  nothing  of  the  other  two. 

The  fact  that  St.  Paul  learned  a  trade  in  his  youth 
gives  us  no  hint  as  to  the  social  circumstances  in  which 
he  was  born  and  brought  up.  It  is  well  known  that 
the  doctors  of  the  Jewish  law  prescribed  the  instruc- 
tion of  every  inale  child  in  some  handicraft.  Eastern 
nations  have  no  conception  of  an  hereditary  aristocracy, 


THE  EDUCATION  OF  PAUL.  213 

—  of  a  class  which  is  made  leisurely  by  the  possession 
of  inherited  wealth.  As  among  Mussulman  communi- 
ties at  the  present  day,  so  among  the  Semitic  races  of 
the  Christian  era,  a  king  might  lift  a  beggar  from  the 
dunghill  to  set  him  among  princes,  and  as  easily  com- 
pel him  to  revert  to  his  original  condition.  Some  oc- 
cupation, therefore,  was  universally  taught  to  the  youth, 
by  which,  should  misfortune  overtake  him,  the  man 
might  earn  his  bread.  "He  who  does  not  teach  his 
son  a  trade,"  said  the  Rabbis,  "teaches  him  to  be  a 
thief"  —  i.e.,  a  Bedouin,  or  a  brigand.  So  the  young 
Saul,  living  at  Tarsus,  was  instructed  in  the  craft  of  a 
local  industry  —  the  manufacture  of  goats'  hair  into  a 
strong  cloth  for  tents.  This  cloth  was  called  cilicium, 
from  the  province  in  which  it  was  first  manufactured, 
and  in  low  Latin  was  used  —  perhaps  is  still  used  —  to 
designate  the  hair  shirt  worn  by  ascetics  and  devotees. 
There  was  a  time  in  his  life  when  the  Apostle  found  his 
skill  useful,  though  it  does  not,  I  think,  follow  necessa- 
rily, that  he  was  actually  engaged  in  the  manual  labor 
of  a  hand-loom  weaver  at  Corinth. 

After  a  time,  —  but  at  what  time  we  know  not, — 
the  youth  was  sent  to  Jerusalem,  to  be  taught  by  the 
most  eminent  of  the  Jewish  doctors, — the  last  and 
the  greatest  of  the  Hebrew  schoolmen.  Gamaliel  was 
the  grandson  of  Hillel.  As  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles 
tells  us,  he  was  an  honored  teacher  among  the  Jews, 
and  a  man  of  good  sense  and  moderation.  The  Gemara 
is  full  of  stories  about  him,  illustrating  his  influence, 
orthodoxy,  and  wit.     Thus,,  he  is  made  to  talk  famil- 


214  PAUL   OF  TARSUS. 

iarly  with  Caesar,  —  by  whom  is  probably  meant  Au- 
gustus, —  and  to  have  vindicated  the  Jewish  narrative 
of  man's  creation,  and  the  doctrines  of  the  soul's  im- 
mortality and  the  body's  resun-ection,  by  citations  of 
Scripture  and  ingenious  parables.  It  is  possible  that 
his  2)upil  Saul  was  one  of  those  Cilician  Jews  who  dis- 
puted with  Stephen.  We  know  that  he  was  in  that 
furious  rabble  which,  goaded  by  the  reproaches  of  the 
eloquent  and  zealous  deacon,  shed  the  first  Christian 
blood.  As  Paul  obtained  his  kuowledge  of  Greek  lit- 
erature in  Tarsus,  so  he  learned  the  mysteries  of  Jewish 
casuistry  at  the  feet  of  Gamaliel  in  Jerusalem.  It 
appears,  too,  that  Paul  had  some  permanent  home  in 
Tarsus,  for  there  Barnabas  sought  and  found  him,  when 
the  tAvo  Apostles  of  the  Gentiles  set  out  on  their  first 
formal  mission. 

It  does  not  seem  that  Paul's  circumstances  were 
mean.  He  constantly  travels  by  sea,  and  with  some 
retinue.  That  he  freely  spent  his  substance  on  his 
companions,  and  on  those  who  might  need  his  assist- 
ance, is  to  be  expected  from  the  generous  character  of 
the  man.  That  he  was  intensely  sensitive  to  any  sus- 
picion of  mercenary  motives,  is  well  known.  That  he 
did  not  hesitate  to  assert  his  right  to  the  assistance  of 
his  converts,  and  that  he  was  exceedingly  averse  to 
insisting  on  the  satisfaction  of  that  right,  are  perfectly 
consistent  traits.  But  this  jealous  love  of  indepen- 
dence did  not  deter  him  from  accepting  assistance  which 
was  urged  on  him,  nor  did  any  false  shame  prevent  him 
from  acknowledging  such  gifts  with  affectionate  grat- 


EIS   WOBLDLY  CIRCUMSTANCES.  215 

itude.  He  knew  distinctly  that  any  service,  however 
great  it  may  be,  is  instantly  suspected,  and  certainly 
tainted,  if  any  charge  of  self-interest  can  be  alleged 
against  the  doer  of  it.  That  he  suffered  occasional 
privations,  due  to  temporary  causes,  was  to  be  expected 
from  the  missionary  life  which  he  undertook.  But  a 
pauper  could  not  have  lived  for  a  long  time  in  Ephesus. 
It  was  the  most  frequented  city  in  Asia,  and  therefore 
was  a  place  where  no  one  could  have  resided  except  at 
considerable  expense.  Besides,  during  his  residence  he 
inade  acquaintance,  in  a  somewhat  intimate  fashion, 
with  some  of  the  "  chiefs  of  Asia."  It  appears  that 
when  he  was  imprisoned  at  Csesarea,  Felix  expected 
that  he  might  make  offer  of  a  bribe,  so  as  to  procure  a 
release  from  his  confinement,  and  the  bribes  which  cor- 
rupt Roman  governors  took  were  large.  Nor  again  at 
the  closing  period  of  his  recorded  history,  when,  if  at 
any  time,  his  circumstances  would  have  been  desj^erate, 
does  he  seem  to  have  been  impoverished.  Some  of  his 
friends  accompany  him,  apparently  as  passengers,  in 
the  ship  whose  sign  was  Castor  and  Pollux ;  and  in 
Rome,  where  Juvenal  tells  us  the  cost  of  subsistence 
was  excessive,  the  Apostle  lives  in  his  own  hired  house, 
the  soldier  who  kept  him  in  a  kind  of  free  custody 
being  quartered  'on  him.  We  find  that  this  house  was 
large  enough  to  receive  such  visitors  as  waited  on  him, 
and  to  contain  an  audience. 

These  facts  have  been  commented  on,  not  with  a  view 
to  attempting  a  life  of  the  Apostle,  —  an  undertaking 
which   has  been  frequently  essayed,  and   never  with 


216  PAUL   OF  TARSUS. 

success,  but  because  the  circumstances  which  have 
been  adverted  to  should  be  stated,  in  order  to  form  an 
estimate  of  St.  Paul's  character  as  a  man,  and  his  work 
as  a  missionnry.  For  he  is  really  the  missionary-Apos- 
tle, —  chosen,  set  apart  to  carry  the  good  tidings  to  all 
the  nations,  to  found  churches,  to  train  preachers.  It 
was  he  and  his  disciples  who  "  turned  the  world  uj^side 
down."  With  three  exceptions,  the  names  of  those 
who  had  followed  Jesus  up  to  his  passion  disappear 
from  sacred  history  after  the  catalogue  is  given  in  the 
Acts  of  the  Apostles,  —  always  occupy  an  inferior 
place  to  Philip,  Stephen,  and  James.  In  the  infancy 
of  the  Christian  Church,  John  is  associated  with  Peter ; 
a  little  further  on,  and  James  the  brother  of  John 
drinks  of  the  cup  and  undergoes  the  baptism,  which 
Christ,  with  affectionate  sadness,  predicted  would  be 
the  lot  of  the  sons  of  Zebedee.  Later  legends  give  us 
the  history  of  the  apostolic  dispersion,  and  at  last 
assign  his  mission  to  each  of  the  Twelve  and  describe 
the  acts  of  his  martp'dom.  In  all  likelihood,  however, 
as  they  were  at  Jerusalem  on  the  occasion  of  Paul's 
first  visit,  so  most  of  them  remained  there  as  an  apos- 
tolic college,  under  the  presidency  of  James,  known  as 
the  brother  of  our  Lord,  till  death  removed  them  one 
by  one,  or  till  the  survivors,  foreseeing  the  fall  of  the 
Holy  City  and  the  ruin  of  their  race,  fled  to  some 
place  of  refuge  beyond  the  Jordan.  It  is  probably  at 
this  time  that  the  voice  from  Patmos  is  raised,  and  the 
Christian  Church  is  instructed  in  the  mystic  vision  of 
the  future  Providence  of  God.  Last  of  all,  the  gospel 
of  Christ's  discourses  is  published. 


ZEAL   OF   THE  DISPERSED  JEWS.  217 

It  seems  clear  that  the  resident  Christians  of  Jeru- 
salem excited  little  animosity  on  the  part  of  those  rival 
sects  whose  hatred  toward  Christ  was  so  furious  and  so 
inveterate.  It  is  true  that  immediately  on  the  forma- 
tion of  the  Church  the  boldness  of  men  like  Peter,  and 
John,  and  Stephen  brought  persecution  on  the  flxithful. 
But  at  that  time  the  death  of  Jesus  was  fresh  in  the 
memory  of  men,  and  the  hierarchy  became  alarmed 
and  indignant  at  being  charged  with  his  murder.  Nor 
do  we  know  what  were  the  causes  which  led  to  the 
execution  of  James  and  the  imprisonment  of  Peter. 

The  author  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  tells  us  that 
the  execution  pleased  the  Jews.  It  is  possible  that,  for 
a  few  years  after  the  crucifixion,  the  events  which  pre- 
ceded the  Easter  of  His  Passion  may  have  recurred  to 
the  memory  of  those  who  took  part  in  that  crime,  and 
that  the  hate  which,  as  the  Roman  historian  tells  us,  is 
felt  by  the  wrong-doer  to  his  victim,  may  have  roused 
the  people  to  acts  of  hostility  against  the  companions 
or  disciples  of  Christ.  During  the  middle  ages,  it  was 
a  common  thing  for  the  populace  to  be  roused  to 
excesses  against  the  Jews  by  inflammatory  orations 
preached  on  the  Passion  of  Christ  at  Easter  time.  It 
is  seen,  too,  that  the  dispersed  Jews  who  did  pilgrim- 
age to  Jerusalem  at  the  Passover  were  more  easily 
stirred  to  fanatical  outbursts  of  rage  than  the  settled 
inhabitants  of  the  city  ;  and  they  who  profited  by  their 
first-fruits  and  their  offerings  were  not  unlikely  to  con- 
ciliate them  by  zeal  against  those  who  might  be  sup- 
posed to  be  unfriendly  to  Jewish  nationality  and  the 
10 


218  PAUL    OF  TARSUS. 

Law  of  Moses.  It  may  be,  too,  that  James  and  Peter 
—  one  of  whom,  by  reason,  it  seems,  of  the  vehemence 
of  his  character,  was  surnamed,  with  his  brother,  "  the 
son  of  thunder ; "  the  other,  the  chief  witness  of  Christ's 
life  —  may  have  provoked  this  sudden  onslaught  by 
reproaches  similar  to  those  Avhich  were  uttered  by 
Stephen,  and  have  led  Agrippa  to  consider  that  policy 
demanded  the  sacrifice  of  these  troublesome  sectaries. 
It  was  the  last  attack  on  the  Apostolic  college,  as  far 
as  we  have  information  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles. 
Afterwards,  we  are  told,  the  Word  of  God  grew  and 
multiplied.  There  was  nothing,  indeed,  in  the  charac- 
ter and  practice  of  the  Jewish  Christians  which  could 
cause  permanent  hostility  to  the  Church  of  Jerusalem. 

Agrippa  had  been  one  of  those  adventurers  of  royal 
blood,  Avho  swarmed  at  the  courts  of  the  Roman  em- 
perors. Following  the  traditions  of  the  Republic, 
the  emperors  maintained  a  number  of  dependent  mon- 
archs  in  the  outlying  parts  of  the  empire,  as  in  the 
interior  of  Africa,  in  Syria  and  in  Asia  Minor.  They 
set  up,  and  deposed  these  puppets  at  pleasure.  They 
encouraged  pretenders  to  plead  their  rival  claims  at 
Rome.  Sometimes  a  kingdom  was  made  a  province, 
and  afterwards  constituted  anew  into  a  kingdom,  with 
the  same  or  altered  boundaries. 

The  imperial  house  had  hitherto  shown  great  favor 
to  the  Jews.  Julius  Caesar  had  received  important 
assistance  from  the  nation  at  a  crisis  of  his  fortunes, 
and  he  had  not  been  ungrateful.  Augustus  followed 
the  same  policy.     He  confirmed  Herod  the  Great  in 


AGRIFPA,   FRIEND   OF  CALIGULA.         219 

his  sovereignty  over  Judea,  and,  during  the  reign  of 
this  astute  king,  the  Jews  prospered  and  preserved  a 
form  of  independence  ;  for  Herod's  wrath  fell  mainly 
on  his  wives,  his  children,  and  his  nobles.  The  jest  of 
Augustus,  that  he  would  rather  be  Herod's  hog  than 
his  son,  is  well  known.  Either  by  design  or  from 
caprice,  the  monarchy  of  Herod  was  not  continued  to 
his  sons,  for  they  received  only  small  portions  of  their 
father's  extensive  dominions,  while  the  greater  part  of 
Palestine  was  committed  to  the  rule  of  a  procurator 
who  was  subordinated  to  the  proconsular  governor  of 
Syria.  Such  a  procurator  was  Pilate,  who  was  in  the 
first  instance  a  creature  of  Sejanus,  and  had,  perhaps 
to  please  his  patron,  as  well  as  to  indulge  his  natural 
savageness  of  temper,  treated  the  Jews  with  extreme 
harshness.  The  fall  of  Sejanus  occurred  a  little  before 
the  murder  of  Christ ;  and  the  affectation  of  justice, 
the  comparative  gentleness  of  the  procurator's  manner 
in  dealing  with  the  Jewish  authorities,  the  symbolical 
protest  against  the  iniquity  of  condemning  the  right- 
eous, and  the  concession  to  the  threat  of  being  rep- 
resented as  unfaithful  to  the  jealous  and  suspicious 
Tiberius,  point  to  the  alarm  and  anxiety  which  Pilate 
felt  at  the  crisis  when  the  priests  led  Christ  before  the 
governor. 

Agrippa  had  been  the  friend  and  comj^anion  of  Calig- 
ula, and  the  confidant  of  his  secrets.  He  had  shared 
those  furtive  pleasures  which  Caligula  ventured  on, 
during  the  lifetime  of  Tiberius,  when  the  man's  real 
nature  was  unknown  to  any  one  but  his  closest  asso- 


220  PAUL   OF   TARSUS. 

ciates,  and  to  the  dark,  shrewd  old  emperor.  In  order 
to  maintain  his  appearance  at  court,  and  to  further  his 
intrigues  after  the  throne  of  the  great  Herod,  Agrippa 
had  involved  himself  terribly  in  debt  ;  for  in  those  evil 
days,  nobles  and  princes  borrowed  largely  in  order  to 
find  the  means  for  profligacy  and  bribery,  with  the  cer- 
tainty that  they  would  be  able  to  recover  their  for- 
tunes from  subjects  or  provincials  if  they  could  get  a 
kingdom  or  the  administration  of  a  province.  Thus, 
Agrij^pa  borrowed  largely  of  Alexander  Lysimachus, 
the  rich  Alabarch  of  Alexandria,  stipulating  that  half 
the  sum  should  be  paid  at  Alexandria,  the  other  half 
at  Puteoli  (another  illustration,  by  the  way,  of  the 
manner  in  which  the  Jews  carried  on  their  banking 
operations)  ;  of  Antonia,  the  mother  of  Claudius ;  and, 
finally,  of  a  rich  Samaritan  who  lived  at  Rome  and 
was  a  fi'eedman  of  Claudius.  But,  up  to  the  time  when 
Tiberius  died,  Agrippa  had  been  the  unluckiest  of 
adventurers.  His  prospects  were  then  at  the  worst, 
for  the  emperor  had  not  only  slighted  his  suit,  but  had 
cast  him  into  prison. 

On  the  accession  of  Caligula,  he  was  instantly 
released  and  loaded  with  favors.  The  emperor  gave 
him  a  chain  of  gold,  the  weight  of  which  was  equal 
to  that  of  the  fetters  with  which  he  had  been  loaded. 
He  made  him  king  of  the  Jews,  bestowing  on  him  that 
which  he  had  so  long  sought  for  in  vain.  Agrippa 
hastened  to  take  possession  of  his  kingdom,  but  was 
imprudent  enough  to  exhibit  himself  in  royal  pomp  at 
Alexandria,  where  the  Jews  were  at  that  time  exceed- 


COURAGE   OF  AORIPPA.  221 

ingly  unpopular.  The  last  recorded  circumstance  of 
his  public  life  —  a  similar  but  a  more  scandalous  exhi- 
bition of  vanity  —  is  well  known  to  all  who  read  the 
Scriptures,  and  is  also  narrated  by  Josephus. 

Agrippa  seems  to  have  been  the  only  man  whom 
Caligula  really  loved.  When  the  emperor  became 
insane,  and  the  whole  world  was  subjected  to  the 
caprice  of  a  cruel  and  sensual  madman,  Agrippa  still 
influenced  him.  At  last,  Caligula  declared  himself  a 
god,  and  bade  the  empire  worship  him,  and  the  empire 
submitted  with  alacrity  to  the  amazing  degradation. 
The  Jews  alone  refused  to  commit  this  act  of  impiety, 
and  Caligula  ordered  that  a  statue  of  himself  should 
be  forthwith  set  up  in  the  Temple  at  Jerusalem.  Had 
the  command  been  obeyed  at  once,  there  is  little  doubt 
that  the  outbreak  which  tasked  the  energies  of  Ves- 
pasian and  Titus  would  have  been  anticipated  by  thirty 
years. 

At  this  crisis,  Agrippa  threw  himself  in  the  very 
path  of  the  madman,  as  he  was  on  the  full  course  of 
his  frenzy.  He  addressed  a  letter  to  him,  in  which  he 
implored  him  not  to  take  this  step.  The  letter  is  pre- 
served in  that  work  of  Philo  which  narrates  the  suffer- 
ings of  the  Alexandrian  Jews,  and  the  attempts  they 
made  to  conciliate  the  emperor.  The  effort  must  have 
cost  Agrippa  infinite  anxiety.  It  was  certainly  an  act 
of  singular  heroism;  it  was  as  if  he  had  cast  himself  to 
the  wild  beasts  of  the  circus,  for  he  risked  life  and  all 
that  he  had  lived  for.  Agi'ippa  had  been  a  voluptuary 
and  an  adventurer ;  he  had  been  the  meanest  thing  the 


222  PAUL    OF   TARSUS. 

world  had  ever  seen  —  a  courtier  of  the  early  empire ; 
but  in  this  act  he  showed  the  courage  of  the  Maccabees, 
from  whom  he  was  descended.  It  is  only  justice  to  him 
to  believe  that  he  counted  the  cost,  and  that  he  delib- 
erately ventured  every  thing  to  save  the  I'emple  from 
profanation,  the  Jews  from  an  inexpiable  insult,  and  the 
empire  from  a  desperate  war.  He  gained  delay  by  his 
remonstrance,  and  Caligula's  death  put  an  end  to  the 
danger. 

These  facts  in  the  life  of  Agrippa  have  been  men- 
tioned because  they  show  that,  although  he  had  been 
corrupted  by  the  influences  of  the  Roman  court,  and  had 
flattered  the  worst  vices  of  the  worst  men  in  the  worst 
age  of  the  world's  history,  he  was  yet  saved  from  utter 
degradation,  and  roused  to  courage  by  the  religion 
which  kept  its  hold  on  him.  That  motive,  which  was 
strong  enough  to  make  a  hero  of  Agrippa,  and  which 
might  have  made  him  a  martyr,  if  the  dagger  of  Chae- 
rea  had  not  shortened  the  career  of  Caligula,  animated 
every  Jew.  The  Jew  was  of  a  race,  according  to 
Cicero,  that  was  born  for  servitude.  But  no  race  ever 
struggled  more  earnestly  for  its  faith  and  its  nationality 
than  that  of  Israel  did ;  and,  dispersed  and  broken  as  it 
is,  none  has  ever  maintained  both  with  greater  fidelity, 
none  has  illustrated  more  clearly  how  powerful  passive 
resi^tance  may  be. 

It  has  been  observed  that  from  the  days  of  the  elder 
Agrij^jja,  the  Church  at  Jerusalem  enjoyed  unbroken 
quiet.  Its  chief  officer  was  a  devout  ascetic,  for  James 
lived  according  to  the  strictest  rules  which  the   Law 


PAUL'S   "  THORN  IN   THE  FLESHY         223 

prescribed  to  the  profession  of  a  Nazarite.  His  mode 
of  life  resembled  that  of  those  anchorites,  the  Trap- 
pists  of  ancient  history,  who  lived  by  the  Lake  Ma- 
reotis,  under  the  name  of  Therapeutge,  and  were 
probably  the  representatives  of  the  Buddhist  mission 
Avhich  was  sent  to  Egypt  in  the  days  of  Ptolemy  Phil- 
adelphus.  The  knees  of  James  became  horny  by  the 
constant  attitude  of  prayer.  Josephus,  who  narrates 
the  circumstances  of  his  death,  states  that  the  man  was 
highly  honored  and  respected.  Strict  in  the  fulfilment 
of  those  obligations  which  the  Law  imposed,  the  col- 
lege at  Jerusalem  may  have  been  looked  on  as  a  mere 
offshoot  of  the  Pharisaic  sect,  which  provoked  no 
antijDathy  on  the  part  of  the  Jewish  hierarchy,  because 
it  advised  no  innovation  on  the  practice  of  orthodox 
Israel. 

The  physical  constitution  of  St.  Paul  was  weakly,  — 
as  in  the  case  of  many  men  who  have  been  charac- 
terized by  great  mental  vigor  and  unsparing  energy ; 
his  bodily  powers  seemed  wholly  inadequate  to  the 
task  which  he  undertook.  Besides,  he  underwent 
labors  and  hardships  which  were  sufficient  to  try  the 
endurance  of  the  strongest  frame,  of  any  frame;  for 
it  is  often  the  case  that  certain  privations  are  borne 
better  by  the  weakly  than  by  the  robust.  It  is  well 
known,  moreover,  that  he  speaks  of  some  peculiar  trial 
to  which  he  was  subject,  a  trial  which  he  designates 
as  a  messenger  of  Satan.  It  has  been  suggested  that 
this  was  some  sensuous  impulse.  But  this  interpreta- 
tion is  erroneous  as  well  as  offensive.     The  "thorn"  is 


224  PAUL    OF   TARSUS. 

some  sudden  racking  pain  ;  some  constitutional  infirmity 
which  agonizes  or  prostrates  the  suflferer  for  a  time. 
The  word  which  has  been  translated  thorn,  is  properly 
a  sharp  stake.  A  verb  formed  from  it  is  used  to  denote 
crucifixion  or  impalement.  A  paroxysm  of  such  pain 
would  leave  the  patient  "bufieted,"  i.e.  sore  and 
uneasy;  the  word  expressing,  in  popular  language,  the 
feeling  of  having  been  bruised  or  beaten.  It  may  be 
observed  that  such  bodily  afflictions  were  supposed,  in 
accordance  with  the  language  employed  at  the  com- 
mencement of  the  book  of  Job,  to  be  injuries  inflicted 
by  Satan  —  the  accuser,  who  is  permitted  by  God  to 
stretch  forth  his  hand  against  the  servants  of  the  Most 
High,  but  who  cannot  touch  their  life.  The  dominant 
notion  of  modern  theology,  which  makes  the  incite- 
ment to  sensual  impulses,  and  other  sins  against  the  holi- 
ness, the  majesty,  the  providence,  and  the  will  of  God, 
an  act  of  an  ever-watchful  and  malignant  spirit  who 
tries  to  drag  down  into  his  own  misery  those  who  are 
ordained  for  a  higher  destiny  and  loftier  hopes,  was  at 
least  an  undeveloped  opinion  in  the  Apostolic  age.  St. 
James  tells  us,  that  sin  is  the  spontaneous  following  of 
a  man's  own  lusts  and  appetites.  The  devil  of  St. 
Peter's  epistle  who  goes  about,  seeking  whom  he  may 
devour,  is  plainly  a  human,  and  not  a  spiritual  foe  — 
a  persecutor,  but  not  a  seducer. 

The  Apostle  suffered,  then,  from  some  intermittent  or 
recurrent  malady.  It  was  probably  to  this  disease  that 
the  pallid  look,  which  all  his  descriptive  portraits 
specify  of  him,  was  due.     I  have  little  doubt  that  the 


TIUS  PAUL  MARRlED'i  225 

disease  was  neuralgic.  One  conjecture  as  to  its  nature 
has  been  made,  which  appears  to  he  pLausibly  supported 
by  certain  passages  in  the  epistles  and  elsewhere.  It  is 
that  he  suffered  from  weakness  of  sight.  It  is  supposed 
that  his  writing  to  the  Galatians  "  in  such  large  letters  " 
is  one  hint.  Another  is  in  his  saying,  that  some  who 
loved  him  would  have  plucked  out  their  right  eyes  for 
his  service.  A  third  is  gathered  from  his  mistake 
about  the  high  priest.  But  not  one  of  these  passages 
is  conclusive,  and  none  suggest  the  strong  fierce  pain 
which  the  word  employed  by  the  Apostle  to  describe 
his  suffering  naturally  signifies.  It  is,  however,  a  mat- 
ter of  obvious  interest  to  know  what  was  the  physical 
hindrance  which  Paul  suffered  from,  and  from  which  his 
resolute  and  devout  spirit  gathered  consolation  and 
even  strength.  The  honor  we  entertain  towards  those 
who  have  conferred  inestimable  benefi^ts  on  mankind  is 
not  lessened  when  we  learn  what  were  their  physical 
ailments,  what  were  the  personal  hindrances  which 
they  had  to  battle  with,  in  addition  to  the  enormous 
toil  which  must  be  undergone  by  those  who,  in  God's 
name,  and  for  man's  sake,  strive  to  teach  an  ignorant, 
and  purify  a  corrupt  world.  We  do  not  care  to  know 
these  things  because  they  show  that  such  eminent  per- 
sons are  so  much  like  ourselves,  but  because  we  would 
understand  how  the  power  which  stirred  and  strength- 
ened them  was  so  vast,  so  effectual,  so  divine,  as  to 
overcome  what  seem  to  be  insurmountable  obstacles. 

It  was  an  early  question  whether  the  Apostle  was 
married.     The  passage  in  the   Epistle   to  the  Corin- 
10*  o 


226  PAUL   OF  TARSUS. 

tliiaiis,  in  which  he  speaks  of  himself  as  unincumbered 
with  domestic  cares,  does  not  preclude  the  notion  that 
he  might  have  been  a  widower —  does  not  even  j^rove 
more  than  that  he  went  on  his  missionary  journeys 
alone.  On  the  other  hand,  he  speaks  of  his  assent  to 
the  death  of  Stephen,  and  of  his  commission  from  the 
Sanhedrim,  —  functions  and  powers  which  could  not 
well  have  been  exercised  by  a  man  who  was  not  a 
member  of  that  council.  But  we  are  e?:pressly  told 
that  this  great  assembly  of  the  Jews  included  only 
fathers,  in  order  to  secure  a  merciful  interpretation  of 
the  Law.  An  early  explanation,  too,  of  the  "true  yoke- 
fellow "  at  the  Church  in  Philippi,  —  whom  he  bids 
labor  to  reconcile  or  assist  Euodia  and  Syntyche, — 
recognizes  the  wife  of  the  Apostle  in  the  phrase.  The 
epistle  was,  it  may  be  said  alniost  certainly,  written 
from  Rome,  and  during  the  time  of  that  imprisonment 
in  which  the  perils  of  the  Apostle's  situation  were 
aggravated  by  sorrow,  and  ultimately  by  the  desertion 
of  many  among  his  friends. 

The  ascetic  spirit  which  has  induced  men  to  forego 
domestic  ties,  and  with  them  the  reciprocal  gentleness, 
unwearied  love,  unvaried  patience,  persevering  energy, 
which  should  belong  to  the  relations  of  husband  and 
wife,  parent  and  child,  —  which  do  belong  to  them  gen- 
erally, and  which  constitute  the  strongest  sanctions  of 
social  life,  —  has  been  developed  and  inculcated  for 
various  reasons.  There  are  persons  who  have,  delib- 
erately and  of  purpose,  shut  themselves  out  fi*om  those 
attachments  that  they  may  serve  their  fellow-men  the 


ARGUMENTS  FOR   CELIBACY.  227 

better,  and  so  serve  God.  The  very  purity  and  beauty 
of  these  relations,  and  their  paramount  value  in  the 
organization  of  society;  the  fact  that  they  are  com- 
mended at  once  by  clear  reason  and  tender  affection, 
make  the  sacrifice  of  him  who  could  delight  in  them, 
but  who  resolutely  avoids  them,  that  he  may  give  his 
undivided  will  and  powers  to  the  good  of  mankind,  the 
highest  effort  of  self-abnegation.  Christ  recognizes 
such  a  sacrifice ;  but  with  the  significant  hint  that  the 
sacrifice  must  be  made  wdth  a  real  and  intelligible 
purpose. 

Again,  the  celibate  state  was  recommended  by  St. 
Paul  expressly  for  temporary  reasons.  In  view  of  the 
"present  distress,"  —  the  tempest  which  was  threaten- 
ing the  infant  Church,  —  it  might  be  expedient  to  lessen 
the  trials  of  life  by  diminishing  the  number  of  its  ties. 
The  Apostle's  advice  is  simply  that  of  a  prudent  man, 
who  foresees  the  strain  which  human  nature  will  be 
put  to,  and  who  dreads  the  risk.  It  is  counsel  given 
in  aid  of  human  weakness,  while  the  case  which  Christ 
puts  is  of  that  strong  and  persistent  heroism  which 
knows  no  weakness.  The  Apostle  bids  men  avoid  suf- 
fering ;  the  Master  contemplates  the  example  of  the 
man  who  resolves  to  give  his  undivided  and  unimpeded 
energies  to  the  highest  ends. 

A  third  series  of  arguments  in  favor  of  celibacy  was 
derived  from  that  dualism  which  characterized  Arian 
theosophy.  In  the  view  of  this  scheme,  the  body  was 
an  evil  beast,  to  which  the  soul  was  linked,  and  from 
which  it  should  seek  freedom  by  a  continual  practice  of 


228  PAUL   OF  TABS  US. 

austerities.  The  Creator  of  man  had,  forsooth,  bound 
him,  Mezentius-like,  to  a  corrupt  and  loathsome  nature, 
from  which  he  must  strive  to  liberate  himself —  from 
which,  in  thought  at  least,  he  must  live  apart.  The 
body  was  not,  from  this  point  of  view,  the  instrument 
of  life  —  the  mechanism  by  which  God's  will  might  be 
done  —  but  an  evil  and  insatiate  power,  an  ever-present 
enemy,  which  must  be  beaten  down  and  crushed.  That 
it  should  be  allowed  any  pleasure,  however  innocent 
and  pure,  was  to  concede  something  to  a  foe  who  would 
seize  every  opportunity  for  mischief  It  is  not  unnatural 
that  this  morbid  misconception  of  human  life  should 
have  its  reverse,  and  that  there  have  been  individuals, 
and  even  sects,  who  have  carried  their  theory  of  the 
dual  nature  of  man  to  such  a  length,  as  to  believe  that 
the  indulgence  of  any  appetite,  however  gross  —  of  any 
practice,  however  debasing,  —  may  leave  the  soul  un- 
touched and  untainted.  Suoh  a  sect,  we  learn  from  the 
Gemara,  existed  among  the  Jews  in  the  time  of  Gama- 
liel. "  There  are  men,"  it  is  said,  "  who  assert  that  they 
cannot  sin,  either  with  the  soul  or  with  the  body.  If 
the  spirit  is  divested  of  the  body,  it  flies  away  like  a 
bird.  If  the  body  is  separated  from  the  soul,  it  lies  as 
senseless  as  a  stone."  The  answer  of  the  Jewish 
schoolman  is  in  the  form  of  a  parable.  "  A  certain  king 
had  a  rich  garden,  full  of  ripe  fruit,  and  he  put  as 
guardians  into  it  two  keepers  —  one  lame,  the  other 
blind.  The  lame  man,  however,  climbed,  on  the  blind 
man's  back,  and  together  they  robbed  the  garden. 
When  the  owner  came,  and  found  that  such  a  deed 


APOSTOLIC   CELIBACY  ACCIDENTAL.       229 

had  been  done,  both  culprits  denied  the  act.  How 
could  I  see  the  fruit?  said  one  ;  how  pluck  it?  said  the 
other.  The  wise  king,  however,  was  not  deceived. 
He  bade  the  lame  man  get  on  the  blind  man's  back, 
and,  binding  them  together,  thus  judged  and  jDunished 
both." 

And,  lastly,  the  practice  of  celibacy  has  been  advo- 
cated, because  it  has  been  found  to  suit  the  policy  of 
religious  despotism,  and  has  aided  in  establishing  an 
organization  which  has  subserved  a  factitious  object,  by 
denying  the  affections  any  natural  centre.  It  is  almost 
superfluous  to  urge  how  entirely  this  practice  has  been 
enforced  for  sinister  ends,  how  completely  akin  it  is  to 
the  ultimate  authority  on  which  the  Christian  polity  is 
founded.  It  was  unknown  to  the  Jewish  discipline,  it 
was  a  mere  accident  of  the  Apostolic  age.  It  owes  its 
sanction  to  the  worst  ambition  which  has  ever  perverted 
men,  —  the  desire  to  control  the  religious  sympathies 
of  humanity  in  the  interests  of  intolerance  and  aggres- 
sion. 

The  revelation  of  the  Almighty,  in  describing  His 
love  for  His  creatures,  can  use  no  more  expressive  word 
to  denote  His  Providence  than  that  of  Father ;  with 
all  that  it  suggests  of  unwearied  patience,  forethought, 
goodness  towards  helpless  infancy,  trustful  childhood, 
inquiring  and  impetuous  youth.  It  has  sanctified  that 
affection  which  belongs  peculiarly  to  mankind,  by 
transferring  it  to  the  nature  of  God.  And,  similarly, 
the  relations  of  the  great  Evangelist,  the  Mediator, 
the  Saviour  of  Humanity,  to  the  nature  which  He  has 


230  PAUL   OF  TARSUS. 

exalted  and  redeemed,  are  figured  under  the  similitude 
of  that  other  tie  which  constitutes  home,  with  its  affec- 
tions, its  reciprocal  duties,  its  graces,  its  labors,  its  pur- 
poses. They  who  employed  those  facts  of  social  life  to 
illustrate  the  deahngs  of  God  with  man,  were,  we  may 
be  sure,  wholly  devoid  of  that  perverse  spirit  which 
has  enslaved  men  to  a  morbid  asceticism,  or  to  a  politic 
scheme  of  ecclesiastical  government.  Certainly,  if  Paul 
remained  a  celibate  after  his  conversion  to  Christianity, 
his  motive  must  have  been  that  which  Christ  recognized 
and  commended  under  such  exceptional  circumstances. 

As  the  Christians  of  the  Apostolic  age  held  marriage 
in  honor,  so  they  emancipated  woman.  The  equality 
of  all  believers  in  the  sight  of  God  tolerated  no  social 
difference,  no  pride  of  race,  no  theory  of  an  inferiority 
of  sex.  The  Ai)Ostle  would  not  break  down  the  sub- 
ordination of  a  wife  to  her  husband  in  the  household. 
To  have  announced  the  domestic  equality  of  the  sexes 
would  have  been  too  violent  a  paradox  for  the  age  in 
which  he  lived,  and  Paul  is  at  the  pains  to  warn  believ- 
ing matrons  against  presuming  in  temporal  matters  on 
account  of  their  equality  with  men  in  the  Church. 

In  the  world  outside  the  Christian  Church,  women 
were  generally  in  a  position  of  marked  inferiority. 
They  were,  according  to  the  custom  of  Semitic  nations, 
carefully  secluded  among  the  Jews,  —  for  Philo  reckons 
it  among  the  grossest  injuries  which  Flaccus  did  the 
Alexandrian  Israelites,  that  he  permitted  the  mob  to 
break  open  the  harem  of  the  Jewish  family,  and  to 
compel  the  women  to  remove  their  veils.     What  the 


CHRISTIANITY  AND    WOMAN.  231 

Jews  thought  of  women  generally  may  be  gathered 
from  tlie  Book  of  Ecclesiasticus  —  a  work  written  dur- 
ing the  time  of  the  Syrian  domination.  The  civiUza- 
tion  of  Greece  never  extended  to  her  Avomen.  It  is 
true  that  the  haughty  Roman  heiress  and  matron  had 
assumed  great  independence  —  custom  allowing  an 
easy  divorce.  But  this  independence  had  become  in 
many  cases  synonymous  with  licentiousness  —  if  we  can 
credit  satirists  and  historians  —  though  occasionally 
there  might  have  been  wives  who  deserved  such  grief 
as  that  of  Paullus,  whose  virtues  are  celebrated  in  the 
exquisite  elegy  of  Propertius. 

But  Christianity  raised  women  at  once  to  the  level 
of  men.  They  presided  over  churches,  they  travelled 
as  evangelists,  they  formed  the  earliest  permanent 
order  in  the  Christian  ministry,  under  the  name  of 
deaconesses.  It  is  true  that  at  Corinth  Paul  would 
have  silenced  their  preaching,  but  the  command  is 
probably  local,  and  founded  on  special  reasons.  Try- 
23h8ena  and  Tryphosa  are  the  types  of  a  class.  Aquila 
and  Priscilla  —  always  mentioned  together  —  were  the 
founders  of  the  Church  in  Rome,  the  teachers  of  the 
learned  Apollos,  and  continued  their  joint  labors  so 
long  that  they  were  the  object  of  Paul's  latest  greetings. 
In  Lucian,  the  old  women  and  the  widows  take  up  the 
case  of  the  impostor  Peregrinus,  and  importune  for  his 
release. 

Tliis  equality  of  women  with  men,  this  honor  paid  to 
devout  maidens  and  matrons,  this  dignity  assigned  to 
them  in  the  domestic  life  of  early  Christianity,  led,  of 


232  PAUL   OF  TARSUS. 

course,  to  scandalous  and  malignant  calumnies  at  the 
hands  of  unbelievers.  The  apologists  of  Christianity 
engage  themselves  in  refuting  these  slanders.  Justin 
tells  a  story  of  a  young  man  of  Alexandria  who  wished 
to  jDublicly  demonstrate  his  personal  morality  by  the 
severest  test.  There  was  a  little  color  for  suspicion  in 
the  fact  that  Christianity  was  necessarily  a  secret 
society,  and  it  was  only  too  notorious  that,  among  the 
heathen,  mystical  religious  rites,  to  which  only  the 
initiated  were  introduced,  were  often  a  veil  for  gross 
debauchery.  The  circumstance  which  induced  the  ex- 
pulsion of  the  worship  of  Isis  from  Rome  was,  if  we 
may  trust  Josephus,  a  scandalous  intrigue  furthered,  in 
consideration  of  a  heavy  bribe,  by  the  priests  of  the 
Egyptian  goddess. 

It  is  almost  superfluous  to  say,  that  the  Pauline 
epistles,  in  common  with  the  rest  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment Scriptures,  are  full  of  exhortations  to  purity  — 
full  of  warnings  against  unchastity  in  deed,  word,  and 
thought.  It  was  an  age  of  excessive  grossness,  of 
coarse  licentious  speech,  and  the  Apostle  would  have 
no  compromise  with  it  whatever ;  prescribed  complete 
seclusion  from  its  practices  as  the  only  preservative 
against  its  contagion.  He  exhorts  his  disciples  to 
remember  the  pledge  which  they  have  given  to  their 
Maker  and  their  Redeemer,  and  to  utterly  put  away 
from  themselves  every  thing  which  might  lure  them 
back  to  the  wantonness  which  popular  Paganism  per- 
mitted, or  even  commended  —  which  was  suggested 
publicly,   and  practised   openly.      The   discoveries   at 


PAUL'S  ARGUMENTS    TO    THE  JEWS.      233 

Pompeii  confirra  the  description  given  of  the  morals 
of  Antioch. 

The  powers  which  the  Apostle  possessed  for  the  fur- 
therance of  his  mission  were  not,  as  has  been  stated, 
those  of  an  imposing  presence  and  rhetorical  skill.  He 
did  not  win  his  converts  by  impetuous  denunciations, 
or  by  magnificent  promises,  or  by  practising  on  morbid 
fears.  To  the  Jews  he  argued  as  one  of  their  doctors 
would,  that  Christ  was  prefigured  in  the  Law,  and  in 
the  Prophets,  and  in  the  Holy  Scriptures,  —  in  the 
three  divisions  of  the  Jewish  Bible.  It  was  not  diffi- 
cult to  do  this,  partly  because  the  habit  of  interpreting 
these  writings  in  an  allegorical  sense  was  very  familiar, 
as  we  may  see  from  the  Talmud  and  the  writings  of 
Philo;  partly  because  the  Old  Testament  is  full  of 
Messianic  anticipations,  of  unfulfilled,  but  glorious 
promises.  Doubtlessly,  the  history  of  the  Messiah, 
His  rejection  by  the  Jews,  His  condemnation  by  priests 
and  council.  His  crucifixion  by  the  Roman  governor, 
was  a  vast  difficulty,  a  perpetual  stumbling-block. 
Some  of  the  believers  in  Christ  met  the  difficulty  by 
denying  the  reality  of  the  crucifixion  altogether.  But 
great  as  the  crime  was,  it  was  a  crime  of  ignorance.  It 
was  due  to  the  fact  that  God's  counsels  were  hidden 
from  the  princes  of  the  world,  who  would  not  other- 
wise have  crucified  the  Lord  of  glory.  To  those,  how- 
ever, who  rightly  understood  the  revelation  of  God,  it 
was  clear  that  Christ  must  suffer,  in  order  that  such 
glory  should  be  won.  The  condition  of  all  progress,  all 
growth,  all  restoration,  all  perfection,  is  suffering.     It 


234  PAUL    OF   TARSUS. 

was  a  cardinal  tenet  in  the  morality  of  Judaism,  that 
the  just  are  the  expiatory  victims  of  the  wicked,  that 
the  regeneration  of  the  world  is  to  be  hoped  for  and  ob- 
tained by  the  self-abandonment  of  those  whom  God 
raises  ujj  for  this  high  end.  Hence,  the  Apostle  could 
speak  of  himself  as  one  who  was  helping,  by  his  own 
self-sacrifice,  to  fill  up  what  was  not  even  completed  by 
the  death  of  Christ,  —  the  perpetual  expiation  which 
man  makes  for  his  fellow-man  —  the  waste  which  is 
demanded  from  the  believing  soul,  in  order  to  compen- 
sate for  the  waste  which  is  caused  by  tlie  sinful  soul. 
As  far  as  humanity  is  concerned,  the  sacrifice,  the  cruci- 
fixion, the  shame,  the  loss  is  still  going  on,  in  order 
that  humanity  may  be  exalted  and  redeemed.  The 
Apostle  appeals  to  the  consolations  which  must  be 
afiibrded  to  those  who  are  convinced  that  they  are 
aiding  the  work  of  human  redemption,  by  identifying 
their  efforts  with  the  supreme  effort  of  Christ's  Passion. 
Christ,  I  grant  (it  is  as  though  he  should  say),  was 
crucified,  but  ye  are  crucified  also.  Your  life-long 
struggle  with  the  temptations  and  trials  which  beset 
you,  with  the  passions  which  are  crowded  into  your 
mortal  nature,  with  the  foes  within  you  and  the  foes 
without  you ;  your  work  for  your  own  salvation  and  for 
that  of  others,  —  are  similar  to  that  grief  which  He 
endured  for  you,  which  He  suffered  whom  I  preach  to 
you  as  your  Saviour  and  your  Example.  The  shame 
of  the  death  is  done  away  by  identifying  it  with  the 
most  ardent  struggles  after  the  purification  of  your  own 
souls,  and  the  regeneration  of  the  world.     Met  by  the 


HIS  ARGUMENTS    TO    TEE   GREEKS.      235 

scan»ial  of  the  crucifixion,  —  and  it  was  an  overwhelm- 
ing scandal,  —  Paul  boldly  made  it  a  matter  of  satis- 
faction, and  insisted  that  it  was  not  only  the  initiative 
in  the  redemption  of  man,  but  the  type  of  that  great 
struggle  in  which  death  and  the  grave  are  baffled  at 
the  very  moment  of  their  apparent  victory.  The  diffi- 
culties which  afterwards  arose  as  to  the  nature  of  Him 
Avho  suffered,  and  as  to  the  part  which  men  play  in 
their  own  salvation  and  that  of  their  neighbors,  were 
as  yet  latent. 

With  the  heathen  world  there  was  another  difficulty. 
St.  Paul  tells  us  that  to  the  Greeks  —  the  name  is  generic 

—  the  Gospel  he  preached  was  folly  —  a  sheer  absurdity. 
To  common  habit  it  must  have  seemed  so.  We  can 
imagine  such  persons  arguing  as  follows :  —  Here  is 
a  w^ell-informed  man,  who  has  travelled  much,  and  seen 
much  of  the  world.  He  is,  to  be  sure,  a  Jew,  and 
therefore  believes  in  such  a  conception  of  God  as  is  just 
and  pure,  though  the  belief  is  overlaid  by  a  host  of  an- 
tiquated observances  and  superstitions.  We  can  accept 
the  monotheism  which  the  Jew  teaches.  The  best  and 
wisest  men  of  our  own  race  have  held  such  opinions, 
and  have  repudiated  those  vulgar  ideas  of  the  Divine 
nature  which  are  current  with  a  mob  of  profligates, 
with  illiterate  villagers,  and  with  the  rabble  of  towns. 
But  this  is  not  a  teacher  of  monotheism.  He  proposes 
to  us  a  deified,  or,  at  least,  heroic  redeemer  of  mankind 

—  a  new  incarnation  of  the  Deity.  And  who  is  his 
strange  God  ?  It  is  a  Syrian  peasant,  who  possessed 
certain  powers  which  were  probably  magical,  and  who 


236  PAUL   OF  TARSUS. 

ended  his  career  by  a  violent  death,  inflicted  by  judicial 
sentence,  and,  as  we  may  reasonably  suppose,  for  hav- 
ing taken  part  in  some  local  insurrection.  That  a  wise 
and  holy  person  should  suffer  death  for  his  opinions  is 
not  without  a  parallel  —  that  such  a  person  should  have 
sprung  from  an  ignoble  origin  is  not  without  precedent ; 
but  that  he  should  have  sprung  from  such  an  origin,  in 
such  a  people,  have  limited  his  teaching  to  a  section  of 
his  own  race,  have  perished  by  the  hands  of  those  he 
instructed,  and  should  now  be  held  up  before  us  as  an 
object  of  reverence  —  as  a  person  who,  having  died,  has 
risen,  lives,  and  is  a  God  —  passes  the  bounds  of  cre- 
dulity. What  Festus  uttered  as  Paul  pleaded  before 
Agrippa,  what  the  Athenian  Literati  said,  when  they 
invited  him  to  expound  his  doctrine  on  Mars'  hill,  must 
have  been  in  the  mind  of  many  who  heard  him  speak. 

With  such  persons  the  Apostle  dealt  by  teaching 
the  common  interests  of  mankind,  the  universality  of 
the  Divine  Providence,  the  certainty  of  the  Divine 
judgment,  and  the  appointment  of  a  Person  by  whose 
agency  that  judgment  should  be  declared ;  who,  having 
lived  among  men,  and  having  died  the  death  of  men, 
was  recalled  from  death  in  order  to  fulfil  this  inevitable 
purpose.  To  live  is  to  prepare  for  death,  to  die  is  to 
enter  into  the  vestibule  of  the  Divine  judgment-seat. 
So  he  reasons  with  Felix,  and  with  the  Athenians.  No 
part  of  the  Greek  theology  exercised  a  more  powerful 
restraint  on  the  conduct  of  men,  than  the  tribunal  of 
the  stern,  strict  judges  before  whom  the  dead  were 
arraigned,  and  by  whose  sentence  the  pious  and  the 


PAUL'S  MANNEItS.  237 

guilty  were  rewarded  and  punished.  But,  in  the 
scheme  which  the  Apostle  proposes,  and  which  affirms 
those  elements  of  a  primeval  fi^ith,  there  is  coupled 
the  tenet,  that  he  who  is  to  be  judge  is  also  advocate, 
that  he  who  will  hereafter  utter  the  sentence  is  renewing: 
the  nature  of  those  who  will  appear  before  his  tribunal. 
To  the  Greek  mind,  initiation  into  sacred  rites,  —  the 
knowledge  of  which  was  confined  to  those  who  were 
fit  to  receive  the  revelation,  and  who  would  be  puri- 
fied by  the  knowledge,  —  was  a  familiar  process.  The 
Apostle  appropriates  the  word  which  designates  this 
purifying  knowledge  to  the  Christian  faith,  and  the 
Gospel  becomes  a  mystery. 

All  the  descriptive  portraits  of  the  Apostle  affirm 
that,  whatever  may  have  been  his  physical  appearance 
and  utterance,  his  manner  was  singularly  graceful  and 
winning.  Of  the  attachments  which  he  inspired  we 
have  abundant  proof.  Of  the  affection  which  he  felt 
for  his  converts  and  disciples  we  have  similar  evidence. 
If  he  endured  enmities  he  consolidated  friendships. 
His  intense  personality  makes  his  associates  or  disciples 
shadowy  and  almost  impersonal.  At  first,  indeed,  Paul 
seems  to  be  subordinated  to  Barnabas,  whose  name 
(two  occasions  excepted  in  which  active  hostility  is 
shown  to  these  fellow-laborers)  is  always  put  before 
that  of  his  great  colleague.  But  after  the  quarrel  be- 
tween them,  when  Barnabas  disaj^pears  from  the  nar- 
rative, and  Paul  becomes  almost  the  only  personage  in 
the  history,  the  associates  of  the  Apostle  are  his  dis- 
ciples, probably  his  converts.  Such  were  Silas,  Luke, 
Timothy,  Titus,  and  others. 


238  PAUL    OF   TABSUS. 

IN'othing,  it  has  been  said,  illustrates  the  grace  of 
Paul's  manner  more  comj^letely  than  his  letter  to  Phi- 
lemon. Very  likely  it  is  the  sole  remaining  example  of 
many  similar  epistles,  written  as  occasion  arose  to  those 
with  whom  he  was  united  in  the  double  bond  of  teacher 
and  friend.  The  circumstance  which  gives  occasion  to 
the  letter  is  well  known.  The  fugitive  slave  of  an 
opulent  citizen  of  Colossae  —  as  we  may  surmise  the 
master  was  —  has  been  converted  by  the  Apostle,  and 
is  employed  as  a  messenger  to  the  Church  which  Paul 
had  planted  there.  The  master  had  also  been  a  con- 
vert, and  St.  Paul  writes  by  the  slave's  hand  at  once 
to  the  Colossians,  and  to  the  master,  with  a  view  to 
disarming  the  anger  of  the  latter  against  the  runaway. 
Nothing  can  show  greater  tact  than  this  epistle.  The 
writer  begins  by  thanking  Philemon  for  the  kindness 
and  generosity  he  had  shown  to  the  Christians  in  his 
neighborhood.  Then  he  introduces  the  subject  of  his 
letter ;  alludes  playfully  to  the  name  which  the  slave 
bore  —  "the  Profitable;"  states  that  he  would  have 
gladly  kept  him  as  an  attendant  on  himself,  but  could 
not  do  so  without  consent ;  and  prays  that  he  may  not 
only  be  forgiven,  but  treated  hereafter  as  a  fellow- 
Christian.  Then  he  offers  to  pay  for  any  loss  which 
has  occurred  to  Philemon  by  the  fraud  or  misconduct 
of  his  servant ;  hints  at  the  relations  which  have  al- 
ready subsisted  between  Philemon  and  himself;  assures 
himself  that  more  than  his  request  will  be  granted ; 
and  expresses  a  hope  that  he  may  be  spared  to  pay 
Philemon  a  visit.     Nothing   can  be  less  intrusive,  less 


TEMPER   OF  THE  APOSTLE.  239 

importunate  in  its  tone,  than  this  letter,  and  yet  noth- 
ing can  more  earnestly  express  the  wishes  of  the 
writer,  and  avow  more  courteously  his  assurance  that 
the  favor  will  be  granted. 

Equally  marked  is  the  sensitiveness  which  appears 
in  the  Epistles  to  the  Corinthians.  In  his  anxiety  to 
restore  unity  to  the  distracted  Church  in  that  city,  and 
to  cure  scandals  which  had  infested  it,  the  Apostle  uses 
the  greatest  caution  in  administering  rebuke  and  coun- 
sel. We  learn  from  these  epistles  what  were  the 
leading  characteristics  of  those  primitive  Christian 
communities,  what  were  the  internal  dangers  to  which 
they  were  exposed,  and  how  great  was  the  tact  needed 
to  direct  and  control  them.  And  we  can  also  learn 
from  the  genuine  portions  of  the  Epistle  of  Clement 
to  the  Corinthians,  that  the  Apostle's  advice  had  the 
effect  of  quelling  their  disorders,  though  they  broke 
out  with  redoubled  mischief  after  St.  Paul's  death. 
The  Corinthian  Christians  were  only  too  apt  to  imitate 
those  faction  fights  of  the  Jews  and  Romans  (for  the 
Corinth  of  the  Apostolic  age  was  hardly  a  Greek  city), 
which  are  described  as  having  been  waged  before  the 
tribunal  of  the  philosophic  Gallio. 

But  though  the  Apostle  was  notably  discreet  in  his 
treatment  of  those  with  whom  it  was  important  to  be 
conciliatory,  his  temper  was  not  absolutely  impertur- 
bable. It  is  fortunate  for  the  future  of  the  Christian 
religion  that  his  patience  had  its  limits.  He  was  too 
sagacious  not  to  see  that  the  attempt  to  fasten  Judaism 
on  his  followers    would  simply  ruin   Christianity,  and 


240  PAUL   OF  TARSUS. 

that  the  attempt  must  be  met  resolutely  and  at  once. 
And  as  a  man  in  whom  the  feeling  of  self-respect  was 
heightened  by  the  consciousness  of  his.  own  energetic 
temperament,  by  the  knowledge  of  his  prodigious  suc- 
cess as  a  missionary,  and  by  the  ever-present  conviction 
of  a  special  revelation  from  Christ,  —  to  which  revela- 
tion, and  to  which  alone,  he  owed  his  knowledge  of 
the  Gospel  he  taught,  —  he  was  thoroughly  exasperated 
by  the  attempt  of  his  adversaries  to  disparage,  to  even 
deny  his  apostolic  authority.  The  result  of  this  anxiety 
for  the  future  of  Christianity,  and  this  necessity  of 
self-defence,  was  the  Epistle  to  the  Galatians,  in  which 
the  Apostle  vehemently  asserts  the  authority  of  his 
mission,  gives  the  history  of  his  call  to  the  apostolate, 
and  his  early  resolution  to  act  independently  of  the 
college  at  Jerusalem,  attacks  the  consistency  of  two 
such  men  as  Peter  and  Barnabas,  and  then  announces 
the  necessity  of  separating,  at  once  and  for  ever,  the 
Christian  Gospel  from  Jewish  practices.  He  plainly 
declares  the  ceremonial  parts  of  the  Mosaic  covenant 
to  be  abrogated,  annulled,  antiquated ;  nay,  that  obedi- 
ence to  them  is  inconsistent  mth  the  fellowship  of 
Christ,  —  taking  a  position  from  which  retreat  was  im- 
possible, affirming  a  principle  which  nothing  could 
explain  away  or  qualify.  He  rebukes  the  levity  with 
which  his  converts  had  supplemented  his  teaching; 
assures  them  that  his  gospel  needed  no  addition ;  and 
expresses  a  wish  that  he  could  be  with  them  instantly, 
and  solve  his  doubts  as  to  their  attitude  towards  him 
and  his  gospel   by  speech,  rather  than  by  the  slower 


PAUL'S  METHOD  OF  REASONING.         241 

process  of  communicating  to  them  by  letter,  and  wait- 
ing for  a  reply,  —  to  change  his  written  word  for  word 
of  mouth.  A  man  of  warm  affections,  Paul  always 
preferred  to  treat  men  with  gentleness  and  considera- 
tion, even  when  he  was  prescribing  a  strict  rule  of 
spiritual  life ;  a  man  of  strong  convictions,  he  could  not 
suffer  the  essentials  of  his  ministry  —  his  independent 
authority  as  a  teacher,  and  his  complete  knowledge  as 
a  missionary  —  to  be  disparaged  or  trifled  with.  He 
affirms  the  former  by  an  unwonted  and  emphatic 
adjuration ;  he  pronounces  an  anathema  on  those  who 
change  his  gospel,  —  add  to  it,  or  substitute  any  other 
teaching  for  it. 

The  method  of  the  Apostle's  reasoning  is  often 
obscure,  generally  abrupt,  never,  in  the  technical  sense, 
logical.  He  expressly  repudiates  the  use  of  such  an 
instrument  of  persuasion  as  the  formal  method  of  dem- 
onstration. The  subject  did  not  admit  it,  except  in  so 
far  as,  in  dealing  with  Jews,  he  appeals  to  the  authority 
of  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures.  For  religion  is  not 
an  affiir  of  evidences,  does  not  admit  of  demonstra- 
tion. It  may  be  questioned  whether  faith  has  ever 
been  aided,  or  doubt  resolved  by  the  logical  apparatus 
of  theology.  It  has  been  proved  that  the  religious 
sense  may  become  nearly  extinct  in  an  age  to  which 
dogmatism  has  supplied  the  strictest  definitions,  the 
most  elaborate  conclusions.  To  win  a  man  over  to 
God's  will,  to  instruct  his  heart  in  the  belief  that  God 
is  a  real  Being  whom  man  can  love,  and  loving,  will 
obey,  and  to  nerve  him  for  the  struggle  which  such  love 
11  p 


242  PAUL   OF  TARSUS. 

and  obedience  invite  him  to,  against  the  sin,  the  mean- 
ness, the  selfishness,  the  arrogance,  the  vanity,  the  igno- 
rance  of  a   mere   worldly  life,  —  is   not   the  function 
of  logic,  which  may  perhaps  raise  a  man  to  a  passive 
acquiescence  in  a  Power,  or  at  best  to  the  cold  admira- 
tion of  some  unvarying  Law.    "  The  affections  believe," 
says  Paul,  and  reason  takes  the  impulse  as  a  principle 
of  action.     And  what  is  true  of  a  religion  which  gains 
man  to  God,  is  even  more  manifest  in  the  exhortations 
by   which   the    Apostle   bids    men   believe   in    Christ. 
He  appeals  to  loyalty,  —  to  that  mysterious  sentiment, 
which,  apart  from  the  prosj^ect  of  past  and  future  bene- 
fit, binds  men  to  the  incarnation  of  perfect  love,  wis- 
dom, gentleness,  purity,  —  the  power  and  the  wisdom 
of  God.     If  men  do  and  can  claim  this  loyalty  because 
they  exhibit  in  faint  and   imperfect  outline  some  of 
these  divine  attributes,  or  evoke  it  because  they  merely 
represent  the  cohesion  of  social  life,  how  much  more 
should  He  claim  an  all-absorbing  devotion  who  was  on 
earth   a  pattern    of  perfect  goodness,  and   has   given 
infallible  guarantees  of  future  perfection  to  His  disci- 
ples.    Such  a  loyalty,  ever  present,  ardent,  untiring, 
but  glowing  more  brightly,  working  more  fervently  as 
his  experiences  accumulated,  governed   the  Apostle's 
nature  from  the  day  when,  he  drew  near  to  Damascus, 
to  that  in  which  he  saw  the  time  of  his  departure  at 
hand.     This  he  commended  to  his  converts,  not  by  any 
weight   of   reason   or   wisdom,   but   by  his   perpetual 
experience  of  Christ. 

Even,  however,  if  every  allowance  is  made  for  the 


HIS  OBSCURITY  OF  STYLE.  243 

subject  which  the  Apostle  treated,  and  for  the  pregnant 
brevity  of  his  phrases  and  expressions,  it  cannot  be 
denied  that  the  method  of  the  Pauline  epistles  is  singu- 
larly inconsecutive.  The  style  abounds  in  parentheses, 
inserted  argumentations,  recollections  of  topics,  which 
are  introduced  into  matter  foreign  to  them,  or  diverse 
from  them,  in  the  most  puzzling  flishion.  Sometimes, 
also,  so  many  words  are  omitted  from  a  sentence  that  it 
requires  the  boldest  conjecture  to  supply  the  missing 
terms.  It  seems  as  though  the  clause  had  been  inserted 
between  the  lines  of  the  manuscript,  and  that  space 
failing  for  the  whole  sentence,  the  expression  was  con- 
densed into  inextricable  ambiguity.  Thus,  for  example, 
in  the  case  of  that  celebrated  passage,  "a  mediator  is 
not  of  one,  but  God  is  one,"  it  is  said  that  at  least  two- 
hundred  and  fifty  renderings  have  been  given  of  the 
eleven  words  in  the  original.  The  sentence  bears  every 
mark  of  having  been  written  in.  It  is  not  essential  to 
the  argument.  The  Apostle  is  stating  that  the  mission 
of  Christ  is  the  fulfilment  of  a  promise  made  through 
Abraham  to  mankind,  ages  before  the  Mosaic  covenant 
was  promulgated  and  confirmed.  The  Law,  on  the 
other  hand,  was  not  an  immediate  revelation,  was  an 
addition  to  existing  promises,  and  was  added  in  order 
to  obviate  sins  of  disobedience  or  recklessness,  was 
communicated  by  subordinate  authority,  was  put  into 
the  hands  of  an  intermediary,  plenijDOtentiary  ambassa- 
dor, or  mediator.  Then,  to  emphasize  the  difference 
between  the  earlier  promise  and  the  later  law,  he 
defines  such  an  agent  as  Moses  was  by  a  parenthesis. 


244  PAUL   OF   TARSUS. 

A  mediator  implies  the  existence  of  two  separate  par- 
ties, between  whom  tlie  person  delegated  to  such  an 
office  acts.  But  God  is  an  original  Power,  —  He  is  one 
of  the  parties  to  the  covenant  or  promise,  and  His 
direct  relations  with  the  person  to  whom  He  makes  the 
promise  are  of  a  far  higher  significance  than  the  revela- 
tions which  He  communicates  to  man  by  man. 

Instances  could  be  multiplied  of  these  after-thoughts, 
parentheses,  recollections,  glosses  on  what  has  been 
already  written  down,  and  is  being  read  to  the  Apostle 
by  an  amanuensis.  Let  us  take  an  example.  The  Co- 
rinthians ask  him  what  they  are  to  do  in  the  case  of 
purchasing  meat  which  has  been  oflered  to  idols,  or  is 
suspected  of  having  been  ofiered.  He  commences  his 
reply  in  the  eighth  chapter  of  the  First  Epistle,  and  in 
the  course  of  this  states  his  own  feeling,  that  if  any 
act  of  his,  however  innocent  in  itself,  were  to  shake 
the  faith  of  his  brother,  he  would  in  conscience  abstain 
perpetually  from  the  act.  This  leads  him  to  comment 
on  his  apostolate,  and  his  claims  to  consideration.  This 
suggests  his  right  to  maintenance  at  the  hands  of  his 
converts,  did  he  choose  to  claim  it  —  a  right  which  he 
vindicates  at  length,  and  by  many  analogies.  The  fact 
that  he  makes  no  claim  leads  him  to  expound  the  piin- 
ciples  which  have  guided  him  in  his  public  career,  and 
to  insist  on  diligence  and  consistency  in  the  Christian 
life.  Here  he  illustrates  the  risk  of  falling  away  by 
showing  how  large  was  the  Divine  favor  to  the  Jews 
in  the  wilderness,  and  again  parenthetically  detects  a 
spiritual  significance  in  the  Providence  which  supplied 


EIS  FBESHNESS  AND   SPONTANEITY.      245 

their  wants.  In  the  face  of  these  benefits  they  fell  into 
idolatry,  and,  as  the  Apostle  is  reminded,  into  other 
offences  against  the  majesty  of  God.  Their  example  is 
your  warning,  for  yom-  trials  are  not  beyond  your 
endurance.  Then,  reminded  of  the  idolatry  of  the 
Israelites,  and  simultaneously  of  the  food  and  water 
in  the  wilderness,  he  abruptly  speaks  of  the  feast  which 
is  held  in  remembrance  of  Christ  and  His  betrayal. 
He  justifies  his  statement  that  this  rite  is  a  communion 
of  Christ,  by  the  community  which  exists  between 
them  who  partake  of  the  sacrifice ;  and  this  brings  him 
back  to  things  sacrificed  to  idols,  on  the  use  of  which 
he  now  gives  a  full  oj^inion  at  the  conclusion  of  the 
tenth  chapter.  The  course  of  the  reasoning  is  trace- 
able, —  it  is  not  incoherent,  for  it  is  associated ;  but  no 
better  illustration  can  be  given  of  what  Aristotle  calls 
inconsecutive  utterance,  as  contrasted  with  methodical 
statement,  than  this  passage  does.  With  very  rare 
exceptions,  it  is  always  possible  to  discover  the  con- 
nection of  thought  in  St.  Paul's  dictations  to  his  aman- 
uensis, or  in  the  copy  which  the  amanuensis  made ; 
but  the  association  between  the  connected  statements, 
though  real,  is  vague. 

If  the  reader  of  the  Pauline  epistles  can  disengage 
himself  from  two  superstitions,  —  one  which  urges  him 
to  discover  a  Divine  revelation  in  every  sentence  and 
word  of  these  writings,  and  another  which  seeks  to  tie 
a  hearty,  earnest,  shrewd,  religious  man  to  some  j^rim 
system  of  composition,  such  as  might  be  congenial  to  a 
literary  pedant ;  the  one  dictated  by  a  spirit  of  divina- 


246  PAUL   OF   TARSUS. 

tion,  the  other  by  an  unnatural  affectation,  —  he  will 
find  more  freshness,  spontaneity,  and  reality  in  the 
epistles  of  St.  Paul,  even  in  their  obscurest  and  most 
involved  passages,  than  in  any  more  exact  compositions. 
The  writer  understands  what  he  is  talking  about,  and 
means  what  he  says.  If  he  staggers  under  the  great- 
ness of  his  subject,  if  he  is  distracted  by  the  infinity  of 
the  interests  which  he  treats,  if  every  word  which  rises 
to  his  lips  suggests  a  host  of  profound  and  large  asso- 
ciations, if  his  care  of  all  the  churches  gives  every  fact 
a  varied  but  a  real  significance,  —  the  intensity  of  which 
is  heightened  by  the  energetic  affectionateness  of  his 
nature,  and  the  vivid  way  in  which  he  sees  the  bearing 
of  every  thing  which  occurs  in  the  course  of  his  minis- 
try, —  human  speech  must  be  blamed  for  its  poverty, 
human  experience,  which  has  developed  speech,  for  its 
narrowness.  His  life  was  in  his  hand,  his  heart  was  on 
his  lips.  The  heart  was  often  too  great  for  the  speech. 
It  learnt  much  and  suffered  more.  Short  of  those  mys- 
terious hours  which  were  passed  between  the  garden  of 
Gethsemane  and  the  darkness  on  Calvary,  the  world's 
history  has  uttered  nothing  more  tragic  than  the  words 
of  this  aged  missionary,  —  "  At  my  first  defence  no  one 
came  to  my  assistance,  but  all  deserted  me."  Is  this  to 
be  always  the  lot  of  such  men  as  Paul  ?  He  has  his 
consolation,  —  "The  Lord  stood  by  me  and  strength- 
ened me." 

Though  the  general  style  of  the  Pauline  argument 
is  obscure  and  involved,  there  are  passages  of  astonish- 
ing beauty  scattered  uj)  and  down  these  ej^istles.  Such, 


PAULINE  EPISTLES  NOT  ALL   SAVED.      247 

for  example,  are  the  magnificent  episode  on  Christian 
love ;  and  the  exposition  of  the  resurrection.  Nothing 
can  be  more  clear  and  succinct  than  the  narrative  of 
Paul's  early  apostolate,  which  is  contained  in  the  Epis- 
tle to  the  Galatians,  or  his  resume  of  the  depravity  into 
which  gross  superstitions  had  degraded  the  Roman 
people.  So,  again,  the  letters  to  Timothy  are  full  of 
affectionate  solicitude  and  fatherly  counsel,  as  that  to 
Philemon  is  a  pattern  of  high  breeding  and  tact. 

The  antecedent  likelihood,  that  many  of  the  Pauline 
comj^ositions  are  lost,  is  strengthened  by  distinct  evi- 
dence. One  at  least,  which  was  sent  to  Corinth,  has 
perished.  It  is  probable,  that  in  his  care  of  all  the 
churches  he  despatched  many  other  letters  to  the 
numerous  cities  in  which  he  had  planted  his  gospel, 
from  Antioch  in  the  east  to  the  extreme  west  —  where, 
as  Clement  of  Rome  informs  us,  he  preached  after  his 
first  trial.  Tradition  gives  him  as  wide  a  missionary 
enterprise  in  the  West  as  history  shows  him  to  have 
accomplished  in  the  East  and  in  the  centre  of  the  then 
known  world.  We  could  have  wished  that  the  vigorous 
sketch  which  he  gives  of  his  earlier  labors  had  been  con- 
tinued in  the  last  epistle  which  came  from  his  hand,  and 
that  we  had  been  informed  in  his  final  charge  to  Timothy 
of  the  conclusion  of  that  noble  struggle,  that  complete 
race,  on  which  he  congratulates  himself  at  the  consum- 
mation of  his  career. 


CHAPTER   VII. 

"  I  ^HE  conversion  of  St.  Paul  is  the  greatest  fact  in 
-*-  the  history  of  the  Christian  Church.  Other  men, 
from  having  been  persecutors,  have  become  preachers, 
have  cherished  that  which  they  previously  wasted.  The 
zeal  of  a  convert  is  proverbial,  and  the  zeal  of  the 
early  Christians,  certainly  of  the  Gentile  converts,  was 
unwearied.  Nothing  can  exceed  the  boldness  with 
which  the  Fathers  of  the  Apostolic  age,  and  their  suc- 
cessors during  the  days  of  persecution,  defied  the  power 
which  crushed  them,  but  could  not  root  them  out. 
Every  age  has  witnessed  the  heroism  of  martyrdom ; 
and  Christianity  counts  her  confessors  fi'om  the  days 
of  the  Neronian  j^ersecution  to  those  of  the  slaughter 
in  Madagascar.  It  is  impossible  to  coerce  the  human 
wiU,  except  it  be  first  debased ;  and  Christianity  made 
the  human  will  divine  in  the  sacrifice  and  glorification 
of  Christ.  He  was  the  Example  as  well  as  the  Re- 
deemer of  humanity.  By  the  grace  of  God,  men 
could  be  made  like  Him  who  is  the  Captain  of  their 
Salvation.  No  sex,  no  age,  no  rank,  no  race,  was 
excluded  from  this  great  emancipation.  On  the  one 
side  was  a  despotism,  vast,  unavoidable,  all-embracing, 
iron,  —  a  military  occupation  of  the  world,  —  at  the 


TEMPER   OF  THE  EARLY  CHURCH.        249 

head  of  which  was  some  scion  of  a  worn-out  aristocrat- 
ical  family,  which  in  its  best  days  was  notorious  —  even 
among  the  Roman  nobihty  —  for  hardness  and  licen- 
tiousness. Four  emperors  of  the  Claudian  race  occu- 
pied the  triple  function  of  commander-in-chief,  chief 
judge,  and  high  priest.  Beneath  this  system  lay  a 
world  of  despair.  There  was  no  refuge  from  the  vio- 
lence of  government  except  obscurity,  no  opiate  by 
which  to  forget  the  terror  except  sensual  indulgence. 
On  the  other  side  was  the  promise  of  God,  the  new 
light  of  a  glorious  future,  which  faith  affirmed  and  hope 
made  near.  The  coming  of  Him  who  had  ascended 
was  daily  expected.  He  would  be  seen  in  His  glory 
before  the  generation  in  which  He  lived  had  passed 
away.  And  when  men  murmured  because  He  delayed 
His  coming,  and  said  that  His  promise  was  slack,  they 
were  comforted  with  the  assurance  that  He  was  not 
slack,  but  merciful ;  they  were  told  that  we  who  are 
alive  and  remain  shall  be  caught  up  with  the  dead  to 
meet  Him  in  the  bright  region  above  them  and  to  dwell 
with  Him  for  ever.  To  interpret  the  zeal  of  the  early 
Christians  we  must  measure  not  only  their  hope,  but 
the  contrast  which  experience  j^resented  to  that  hope, 
—  the  dead,  hateful,  cruel  world  of  sight,  the  fresh, 
lovely,  joyous  world  above.  The  heathen  called  them 
mad,  but  they  knew  that  their  hope  was  sober  truth. 
In  the  world,  they  were  most  miserable ;  in  Christ,  they 
are  already  blessed.  Woe  to  man,  when  such  enthu- 
siasm vanishes.  The  mission  of  humanity  is  over,  if 
the  Judge  comes,  and  finds  no  faith,  no  trust,  no  confi- 
11* 


250  PAUL    OF  TARSUS. 

dence  in  the  world,  nothing  but  Wank  apathy,  or  easy 
self-indulgence.  This  was  the  temper  of  the  early 
Church. 

Of  this  zeal,  hope,  endurance,  faith,  Paul  was  the 
most  conspicuous  example.  He  had  always  been 
eminent  for  his  activity.  In  the  days  when  he  per- 
secuted the  Church  his  energy  was  unbounded.  Hav- 
ing harried  the  Christians  of  Jerusalem,  he  journeyed 
to  strange  cities,  taking  advantage  of  the  general 
anarchy  which  the  furious  despotism  of  Caligula  per- 
mitted. In  those  times  of  darkness  his  hope  was  in 
all  that  the  Rabbis  had  taught,  or  could  teach,  of  the 
immortality  of  man's  soul,  of  the  resurrection  of  the 
body,  of  angel  and  spirit.  In  misdirected  faith,  in 
impetuous  endurance,  he  travelled  madly  over  the 
l^lain  which  leads  to  Damascus,  under  the  burning 
mid-day  sun,  eager  to  vindicate  the  law  of  Moses  on 
those  recreant  Jews. 

The  narrative  of  St.  Paul's  conversion,  —  the  vision 
in  the  way,  the  light  from  heaven  above  the  brightness 
of  the  sun,  the  voice  from  heaven,  the  solemn  question, 
—  not  the  less  solemn,  because  it  used  a  familiar  meta- 
phor,—  the  summons  to  obedience,  and  the  acquies- 
cence in  the  command,  the  change  of  heart,  purpose, 
life,  though  not  of  character,  — is  given  three  times  over 
in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  St.  Paul  does  not  in  his 
own  writings  refer  to  the  circumstances  of  this  great 
crisis  in  his  hfe,  but  simply  states  that  he  persecuted 
the  Church,  that  God  revealed  the  Son  to  liim,  and 
that  Christ  appeared  to  him  last   of  all.    And  this 


TEE  APOSTLES  HOSTILE    TO   PAUL.         251 

omission  is  tlie  more  remarkable,  because  there  are 
several  occasions  in  the  epistles,  in  which  reference  to 
the  supernatural  event  would  seem  convenient  or  ap- 
posite—  as,  for  example,  wlien  his  claim  to  the  apos- 
tolic office  was  challenged,  or  questioned,  or  impugned. 
For  the  Apostle  was  assailed  from  two  quarters.  The 
Jews  never  forgave  him  for  his  desertion  of  the  cause 
in  which  he  exhibited  his  earliest  activity.  His  name, 
his  person,  his  mission,  were  odious  to  them.  They 
did  not  forget  that  this  ringleader  of  the  sect  of  the 
Nazarenes  had  once  been  the  bitter  foe  of  the  society 
to  which  he  had  apostatized. 

They  who  recognized  the  mission  of  Christ,  but 
clung  closely  to  the  Jewish  ritual,  were  little  less  hostile 
to  Paul.  Shortly  after  the  death  of  Christ,  there  arose 
a  sect  which  went  by  the  name  of  the  Ebionites,  which 
still  existed  in  the  days  of  Jerome,  perhaps  in  those 
of  Justinian.  Some  traced  these  men  to  a  teacher 
called  Ebion ;  others  said  that  the  name  meant  nothing 
but  "the  poor,"  and  that  they  were  those  Judaizing 
Christians  who  gave  so  much  trouble  in  Antioch  and 
Galatia.  These  men  hated  the  Apostle,  and  denounced 
him  as  a  heretic  and  latitudinarian.  They  circulated 
a  wild  story  about  his  conversion.  Tliey  said  that  he 
was  a  pagan,  who,  for  love  of  the  high  priest's  daughter, 
became  a  Jew,  but  that,  being  disappointed  of  his  wish, 
he  abjured  Judaism,  and  wrote  against  circumcision, 
the  Sabbath,  and  the  Law.  The  story  is  told  by 
Epiphanius. 

Among  the   relics   of  early  Christian    literature  is 


252  PAUL    OF   TABSUS. 

a  narrative,  referred  to  already,  whicli  gives  certain 
imaginary  conversations  between  St.  Peter  and  other 
Scriptural  personages  on  the  one  hand,  and  Simon  the 
magian  on  the  other.  The  authorship  of  the  work  is 
ascribed  to  Clement  of  Rome.  But  this  is  a  manifest 
absurdity.  The  date  of  the  composition  is  probably 
the  middle  of  the  second  century.  But,  though  the 
title  of  the  book  is  a  forgery,  it  undoubtedly  depicts 
the  opinions  of  those  sectaries  who  existed  up  to  the 
fourth  century  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  Dead  Sea, 
and  who,  recognizing  the  twelve  apostles  as  the  only 
source  of  authority,  united  Judaism  to  Christianity.  At 
one  time  they  were  a  powerful  party,  and,  as  they  com- 
bated with  Paul  in  his  lifetime,  so  they  succeeded,  for 
a  century  at  least,  in  overturning  his  authority  in  the 
Eastern  churches.  The  Homilies  of  Clement  represent 
Peter  as  arguing  against,  and  demolishing  the  sophis- 
tries of  Simon.  Some  of  these  are  the  fantastic  ten- 
ets of  Gnosticism.  But,  in  many  particulars,  Paul  is 
plainly  glanced  at.  Thus,  the  authenticity  of  a  per- 
sonal revelation  is  distinctly  repudiated,  —  Peter  alleg- 
ing that  even  an  angel  could  not  address  man  except 
through  the  interposition  of  a  human  body  ;  and,  when 
Simon  replies  that  a  vision  is  given  to  none  but  the 
good,  Peter  quotes  examples  to  the  contrary  from  the 
Old  Testament.  "  If,"  says  he  to  Simon,  "  you  have 
been  visited  by  him,  taught  by  him  in  an  hour,  and 
made  an  apostle;  utter  his  words,  interpret  his  say- 
ings, love  his  apostles,  and  do  not  proclaim  war  against 
me,  who  have  lived  with  him.     You  have  w^ithstood 


THE   OBJECTIONS    TO  HIS   CLAIMS.        253 

me,  who  am  the  solid  rock  and  foundation  of  the 
Church."  It  is  difficult  to  avoid  concluding  that  St. 
Paul  is  referred  to  in  these  expressions. 

It  is  not  easy  to  detect  the  extent  to  which  Judaism 
dominated  in  the  churches  of  Palestine.  But  it 
appears  certain  that  the  measure  of  its  influence  is 
the  measure  of  hostility  to  St.  Paul  and  to  his  preten- 
sions as  an  Apostle.  The  extreme  party  denied  his 
authority  altogether,  and  even  circulated  fables  to  his 
disadvantage.  Even  the  more  generous  were  not 
without  fear  at  his  boldness,  and  suspicion  as  to  his 
motives  and  acts.  This  is  shown  by  the  language  used 
to  him  by  those  residents  in  Jerusalem,  who  persuaded 
him  that  he  should  make  a  show  of  respect  for  the 
Law,  by  associating  himself  with  certain  Nazarites, 
and  presenting  himself  in  the  Temple  with  them. 
This  concession  was  followed  by  disastrous  conse- 
quences, —  by  the  riot  in  the  temple,  and  the  inter- 
ference of  Lysias,  the  imprisonment  at  Caesarea,  the 
voyage  to  Rome,  and  the  captivity  there.  Every  one 
can  see  how  constantly  Paul  strove  to  conciliate  the 
Jews,  and  how  constantly  he  was  repulsed. 

Two  defects  were  discovered  in  his  claim  to  the 
apostolic  office.  He  had  been  a  persecutor.  He  did 
not  satisfy  the  definition  which  the  college  at  Jerusalem 
gave  to  the  status  of  an  apostle  — that  of  one  who  had 
been  in  the  company  of  Christ  during  all  the  course 
of  his  ministry,  from  His  baptism  by  John  till  His 
final  disappearance.  This  was  the  qualification  of 
Matthias.     It    is    probable    that    as    long    as    there 


254  PAUL    OF   TARSUS. 

remained  any  alive  who  had  seen  and  followed  Christ, 
vacancies  in  the  Apostolic  College  were  filled  up  from 
their  number,  and  that,  even  afterwards,  they  who  had 
conversed  with  the  apostles  were  treated  with  peculiar 
respect,  as  the  recipients  of  these  memorabilia  which 
the  apostles  narrated  or  compiled.     In  course  of  time, 
it  is  true,  all  these  witnesses  would  be  removed  by 
death.     But  the  prospect  of  this  cessation  of  ocular 
testimony  to  the  facts  of  the  Divine  life  did  not  disturb 
the  early  Church,  for  it  always  looked  forward  to  the 
speedy  reappearance  of  Christ  upon  earth.     When  this 
hope  was  delayed,  many  adopted   Chiliasm,   and  be- 
lieved that    the    personal  reign   of  their    Saviour,  to 
last  for  a  thousand  years,  was  close  at  hand.     Such,  for 
example,  was  the  belief  of  Justin.     Here,  then,  was  the 
great  difficulty  in  the  case  of  Paul.     Even  if  it  were 
possible  to  exalt  to   the  eminence   of  an  apostle  one 
who   had   persecuted    the    Church    (and    at   first   the 
disciples    seriously  distrusted   him),  how    could   they 
admit  the  claims  of  one  who  had  probably  never  seen 
Christ  during  His  course  on  earth,  who  certainly  had 
never  listened  to  His  teaching  or  witnessed  any  of 
these  great  facts  which  were    certified   by  the  other 
apostles.     In  the  first  instance,  these  difficulties  were 
overcome  by  Barnabas,  who  introduced   Paul  to  the 
other  apostles,  sought  him  out  at  Tarsus,  whither  he 
had  departed,  and  was  for  a  time  associated  with  him 
in   the   ministry,   till    the   friends  were    estranged   at 
Antioch. 

But  Paul  was  distinctly  resolved  to  own  no  man  as 


BOLDNESS   AND  DECISION  OF  PAUL.       255 

his  superior  in  the  work  before  him.  He  insisted,  that 
in  every  particular  he  was  the  equal  of  those  who  were 
acknowledged  as  apostles ;  he  asserts  that  he  did  not 
for  an  hour  yield  to  any  dictation.  To  have  done  so 
would  have  imperilled  every  thing,  —  his  own  authority 
as  a  teacher,  the  reality  of  the  revelation  delivered  to 
him,  the  liberty  which  he  assured,  his  converts  in  the 
Gospel.  There  are  some  who  may  see  in  this  resolute 
attitude  of  the  Apostle,  the  inevitable  egotism  of  a 
strong  will  and  a  clear  purpose ;  but  it  is  more  reasona- 
ble to  discover  in  such  a  temper,  an  unshaken  convic- 
tion in  the  reality  of  the  mission  which  was  intrusted 
to  him,  and  a  distinct  persuasion  that  this  mission  was 
to  be  fulfilled  in  one  way  only,  and  by  those  specific 
means  which  he  had  been  already  adopting.  And,  to 
us  —  who  can  understand  the  effect  of  this  uncom- 
promising temper  upon  the  history  of  Christianity  — 
it  is  manifest  that  the  Apostle's  persistency  is  the 
reason  why  Christianity  did  not  become  a  mere  Jew- 
ish school,  which  might  have  had  a  faint  existence  in 
the  Ana  of  some  Talmud  or  Cabbala ;  or  would,  more 
probably,  have  been  completely  lost  in  the  general 
havoc  of  the  great  Jewish  war.  As  it  is,  the  teaching 
of  Ihe  Pharisee  of  Tarsus  has  given  method  to  mod- 
ern civilization,  ha^  erected  religion  into  a  social  sys- 
tem, and  has  constantly  been  a  standard  by  which  the 
Christian  republic  has  been  measured  and  reformed. 

The  Epistle  to  the  Galatians  contains  the  most  em- 
phatic declaration  of  St.  Paul's  authority  and  inde- 
pendence  as   an   apostle,  though  it  is   not  the   only 


256  PAUL   OF  TARSUS. 

protest  against  those  who  might  impugn  his  right  to 
the  position  which  he  had  assumed  and  vindicated,  for 
nearly  every  epistle  of  the  Apostle  contains  allusions 
to  the  same  subject.  The  most  sceptical  critic  has 
never  questioned  the  authenticity  of  this  composition, 
or  hinted  that  it  is  afffected  by  any  of  those  canons 
of  forgery  which  have  been  so  very  variously  affirmed 
about  the  sacred  writings  of  Christendom.  Rough 
and  plain-speaking  to  excess  —  as  might  have  been 
expected  fi-om  a  man  whose  anger  was  roused  at  the 
intrusion  of  mischievous  busy-bodies  and  pedants 
among  his  converts,  and  at  the  foolish  facility  with 
which  the  former  had  imposed,  and  the  latter  had  ac- 
quiesced in,  a  vain  and  superfluous  ritual  —  the  letter 
is  full  of  gentle  passages  and  affectionate  appeals.  It 
is  to  be  observed,  too,  that  no  name  is  associated  with 
that  of  the  Apostle  in  the  preamble  to  the  epistle  ;  that 
no  salutations  from  individuals,  or  to  individuals,  are 
found  at  its  conclusion.  The  grievance  of  which  the 
Apostle  complains  is  his  own  —  though  shared  by  his 
companions  —  but  he  could  not,  or  would  not,  associate 
any  individual  with  himself  in  the  expostulation  which 
he  addressed  to  these  vacillating  discij^les.  He  wrote 
too,  we  may  conclude,  hastily,  even  impetuously,*  im- 
mediately on  receiving  the  vexatious  news  of  which  his 
communication  treats,  and  he  has  had  neither  time  nor 
inclination  to  collect  and  send  the  messagjes  which  are 
so  general  in  his  other  epistles. 

In  preparing  the  way  to  an  exposition  of  the  author- 
ity under  which  he  spoke  and  acted,  the  Apostle  reiter- 


mS  EPISTLE   TO   THE    GALATIANS.        257 

ates  a  statement  that  the  Gospel  which  he  had  preached 
was  complete,  that  it  needed  no  addition,  and  that  no 
alteration  in  it  could  be  permitted.  He  couples  with 
this  assertion  an  emphatic  excommunication  on  those 
who  hold  the  contrary.  He  varies  the  expression  in 
the  fifth  chapter,  announcing  that  he  who  troubles 
them  shall  bear  his  judgment,  whoever  he  be,  —  the 
phrase  seeming  to  denote  that  the  emissaries  of  Juda- 
ism alleged  the  authority  of  some  persons  in  the  Apos- 
tolic College,  and  that  the  Galatians  were  overawed  by 
the  pretensions  of  those  who  "  had  seen  Christ,  "  or  at 
least  were  the  mouth-pieces  of  those  who  had  enjoyed 
such  important  experiences.  And  then  he  asserts  that 
his  announcements  which  he  had  made  to  them  were 
not  received  from  men,  but  by  the  revelation  of  Jesus 
Christ.  By  this  he  appears  to  imply  that  he  had  not 
accepted  the  traditions  of  the  teachings  which  Christ 
uttered,  nor  had  ranged  himself  as  the  disciple  of 
any  apostolic  master,  but  had  interpreted  the  circum- 
stances of  Christ's  life  and  death  by  the  spirit  of  Christ 
which  dwelt  within  him,  and  which  sufficiently  revealed 
the  significance  of  these  great  and  absorbing  facts.  It 
is  unnecessary  to  argue  that  this  knowledge  was  con- 
veyed to  him  in  any  supernatural  manner.  The  facts 
were  patent  enough.  St.  Paul  could  appeal  to  the 
younger  Agrippa  as  to  the  absolute  notoriety  of  the 
events  which  attended  the  life  and  death  of  Christ. 
The  importance  of  the  revelation  does  not  consist  in 
the  mere  fact  that  Paul  knew  the  events.  In  all  hkeli- 
hood,  he  had  heard  them  over  and  over  again  during 

Q 


258  PAUL    OF   TABS  US. 

the  days  in  which  he  was  a  persecutor.  What  Avas 
significant,  was,  that  knowing  them  he  interpreted 
them,  and  that  they  ceased  to  be  a  stumbling-block  to 
a  man  who  had  made  such  advances  in  the  knowledge 
of  Judaism. 

St.  Paul  was  resolved  immediately  on  his  conversion. 
He  understood  that  his  mission  was  to  the  Gentiles, 
and,  as  he  tells  us,  he  associated  himself  with  no  man 
whatsoever,  not  even  taking  a  journey  to  Jerusalem 
in  order  to  confer  with  the  apostles,  but  mthdrew  into 
privacy  to  some  part  of  the  region  which  was  vaguely 
called  Arabia,  and  which  was  sometimes  made  to  in- 
clude Damascus,  just  as  Xenophon  extends  the  district 
of  Syria  so  as  to  contain  the  Euphrates.  After  a  time 
he  returned  to  Damascus,  and  announced  himself  as  a 
convert  and  a  missionary  of  the  Nazarenes.  Thence, 
as  he  tells  us  in  his  Second  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians, 
he  escaped  by  being  let  down  in  a  basket  from  the 
window  of  some  house  which  overhung  the  wall  of  the 
city. 

Three  years  after  his  conversion  he  went  to  Jeru- 
salem. But,  faithful  to  his  determination  not  to  in- 
volve himself  with  the  Jewish  Church,  he  saw,  as  he 
asseverates  with  an  oath,  only  one  of  the  Twelve,  and 
James  the  brother  of  Christ.  Those,  indeed,  were  men 
of  the  highest  eminence  and  consideration,  whom  it 
was  at  once  seemly  and  prudent  to  acknowledge.  But 
he  saw  no  other  apostle,  and  remained  in  Jerusalem 
fifteen  days  only,  during  which  time  he  was  in  the 
company  of  Peter.     These  days  were  doubtlessly  spent 


INCIDENTS  IN  HIS   CAREER.  259 

in  conversation  about  the  mission  and  life  of  Christ ; 
and  it  seems  certain,  —  though  St.  Paul  repudiates  the 
presumption  that  he  derived  any  part  of  his  authority, 
or  of  the  exposition  which  he  gave  of  the  Gospel,  from 
any  person  whatsoever,  —  that  he  must  have  heard 
during  this  fortnight  many  of  those  f  icts  of  the  private 
life  of  Christ,  which  were  so  well  known  to  the  chief 
of  the  Twelve,  and  many  of  those  discourses  which 
Peter  so  clearly  remembered. 

The  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles  returned  to  his  work. 
For  a  time,  according  to  the  Acts,  he  resided  at  Tar- 
sus; whence  he  set  out  with  Barnabas  on  those  early 
journeys  or  which  we  know  little,  but  which,  probably, 
extended  over  Asia  Minor,  and,  in  particular,  over 
Galatia.  During  this  time  he  was  absolutely  unknown 
by  foce  in  the  Jewish  churches.  He  was  only  reputed 
to  be  a  preacher  of  that  very  Gospel  which  he  had 
previously  harassed.  After  a  lapse  of  fourteen  years 
from  his  first  visit,  he  went  again  to  Jerusalem  with 
Barnabas,  in  order,  it  appears,  to  app^  against  the 
importunity  of  those  who  wished  to  bring  the  Gentile 
Christians  under  the  ceremonies  of  the  Jewish  law. 
Titus,  also  a  Greek,  accompanied  him.  It  seems  that 
the  Apostle  gave  way  in  the  case  of  Titus,  as  he  took 
the  initiative  in  that  of  Timothy,  only  as  a  means  of 
conciliating  prejudice,  though  he  protests  that  this 
concession  was  not  of  necessity.  The  debate  at  Jeru- 
salem led  to  an  amicable  separation.  The  Twelve  saw 
that  Paul  was  really  and  generally  the  Apostle  of  the 
Gentiles;  Peter,  of  the  circumcision;    and  that  both 


260  PAUL   OF  TARSUS. 

were  eminent  in  their  calling.  The  chiefs  of  the  Church 
sided  with  him  no  more  than  he  did  with  their  local 
customs ;  but  the  most  eminent  among  them  —  James, 
Peter,  and  John  (and  St.  Paul  speaks  somewhat  dis- 
paragingly of  their  pretensions  to  hierarchical  author- 
ity) —  admitted  the  mission  of  Paul  and  Barnabas, 
leaving  them  to  carry  out  their  function  without  let  or 
hindrance,  and  reserving  the  teaching  of  the  Jewish 
race  to  the  Twelve.  They  exacted  only  one  obligation, 
—  that  the  proselytes  of  Gentile  origin  should  not  forget 
the  poor,  ascetic,  contemplative  Church  at  Jerusalem. 
The  risks  of  rupture  were  avoided,  and  Paul  and  Bar- 
nabas returned  to  Antioch. 

But  the  inveterate  passion  of  the  converted  Jews, 
which  urged  them  to  reduce  all  men  who  agreed  with 
them  on  doctrinal  points  to  the  same  ceremonial  and 
ritual,  was  not  extinguished  by  this  compromise.  The 
college  at  Jerusalem  might  acknowledge  the  wisdom 
of  conciliation,  might  concede  to  the  energetic  and  reso- 
lute bearing  of  St.  Paul,  might  find  it  impossible  not  to 
"  glorify  God  in  him,"  seeing  how  successful  had  been 
his  mission.  But,  with  the  rank-and-file  of  religious 
sectaries,  uniformity  is  every  thing ;  and  ambitious  men, 
those  who  "wish  to  glory"  in  the  largeness  of  their 
following,  know  that  they  can  always  stimulate  the 
rank-and-file  to  demand  uniformity, — just  as  politi- 
cians can  trade  on  a  sham  patriotism,  —  and  that  they 
can  always,  by  watching  for  their  opportunity,  precipi- 
tate a  crisis.  The  believing  Jews  at  Antioch  waited 
for  such  an  opportunity. 


PAUL'S   BREAK  WITH  PETER.  261 

Meanwhile,  St.  Peter  went  down  to  Antioch.  The 
fact  is  mentioned,  but  not  the  occasion.  For  a  time 
matters  went  on  smoothly.  St.  Peter  had  himself, 
according  to  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  preached  to  the 
Gentiles,  attended  on  their  conversion,  baptized  them, 
eaten  with  them,  been  reported  to  the  apostles  at 
Jerusalem  for  a  breach  of  the  ceremonial  law,  had 
explained  matters,  and  had  been  exonerated  from 
blame.  Now,  a  further  decision  had  been  given  in  fa^ 
vor  of  liberty,  and  Peter  was  not  slow  to  acknowledge 
and  act  on  it.  But  the  unfortunate  facility  of  being 
ashamed  of  his  duty  at  a  crisis,  —  which  seems  to  have 
been  a  special  weakness  of  this  apostle,  which  led  him 
to  deny  Christ  after  vehement  protestations  of  loyalty, 
and  which  is  implied  in  the  legend  of  his  martyrdom  at 
Rome,  —  misled  Peter  in  this  emergency.  Certain  em- 
issaries came  to  Antioch  from  James,  and  apparently 
reproached  Peter  for  having  abandoned  the  exclusive 
rule  of  the  Jews.  He  was  afraid,  and  withdrew  him- 
self from  Gentile  company.  The  other  Jews,  we  are 
informed,  played  the  same  underhand  part;  and,  worst 
of  all,  even  Baraabas,  who  had  been  chosen  as  an 
apostle  to  the  Gentiles,  and  had  labored  with  Paul  for 
years,  joined  the  secession.  For  this  unworthy  con- 
duct, Paul  rebuked  the  chief  apostle  publicly,  charged 
him  with  inconsistency,  and  reminded  him  of  the 
grounds  on  which  the  Gospel  was  founded,  as  com- 
pared with  those  on  which  the  Law  rested.  We  do 
not  know  the  effect  of  this  rebuke ;  but,  judging  fi'om 
the  character  of  St.  Peter,  we  may  be  certain  that  it 


262  PAUL   OF  TABS  US. 

caused  no  real  division  between  the  two  great  apostles. 
If  Peter  was  rash  and  timid,  he  was  affectionate  and 
ready  to  repent  of  offence  committed.  It  is  exceed- 
ingly probable,  too,  that  the  persons  who  had  perverted 
the  Galatians  were  some  of  these  Antiochene  Jews; 
and  that,  when  St.  Paul  tells  the  story,  the  Galatians 
were  not  at  a  loss  to  identify  the  emissaries  who  had 
unsettled  them. 

The  narrative,  whose  leading  characteristics  have 
been  stated  and  commented  on,  was  intended  to  prove 
three  things.  St.  Paul  wished  to  show  that  his  apos- 
tolatCj  both  in  its  origin,  and  by  the  tenor  of  the  facts 
which  preceded  his  second  journey  to  Jerusalem,  was 
independent  of  the  Twelve,  and  derived  no  authority 
fi'om  Jerusalem.  He  could  not  brook  rival,  still  less 
superior,  in  the  work  which  was  before  him,  nor  submit 
to  any  control  whatsoever,  on  the  part  of  any  man, 
however  eminent  he  might  be.  This  had  been  his  con- 
stant determination,  from  the  first  day  of  his  Chris- 
tianity, and  he  was  not  likely  to  forego  it  after  so  many 
years  of  missionary  labor,  and  in  the  case  of  persons 
who  owed  all  their  knowledge  of  the  Gospel  to  him,  till 
such  time  as  these  meddling  emissaries  had  striven  to 
misrepresent  him,  had  repudiated  his  authority,  and 
called  in  question  the  completeness  of  the  Gospel 
which  he  preached. 

Next,  although  he  protests  against  having  sought  it, 
or  sacrificed-  any  thing  to  gain  it,  he  asserts  tliat  the 
Twelve  made  the  concession,  or  arrangement,  that  the 
Gentiles  should  not  be  constrained  to  accept  Jewish 


HIS  INDEPENDENT  MISSION.  263 

rites,  and  implies  that  a  division  of  labor  was  effected, 
by  which  he  had  the  guidance  of  the  Gentile,  Peter  of 
the  Jewish  converts.  This  compromise  seems  to  be 
indicated  as  still  valid  in  the  introduction  to  St.  Peter's 
first  epistle,  which  is  especially  addressed  to  the  dis- 
persed Jews.  Not,  indeed,  that  St.  Paul  would  object 
to  any  association  with  the  special  ministry  of  Peter,  — 
on  the  contrary,  he  frequently  addressed  the  Jews,  — 
but  the  rule  was  a  general  one,  and  in  effect  most 
important,  because  it  was  a  formal  acknowledgment  of 
Paul's  mission,  and  of  its  total  independence.  Hence- 
forth the  two  chm'ches  were  to  be  one  in  faith  and 
mutual  good- will,  but  different  in  their  ritual,  ceremo- 
nies, and  government.  The  church  which  Peter  was  to 
instruct  was  national,  that  which  was  put  under  the 
guidance  of  Paul  was  cecumenical.  The  story  that 
Peter  ruled  the  Church  of  Rome  for  a  quarter  of  a 
century  is,  of  course,  contradicted  by  the  facts  told  in 
the  Epistle  to  the  Galatians,  and  is  plainly  a  baseless, 
though  ancient  fable,  which  has  been  maintained  and 
amplified  in  order  to  serve  particular  ends,  and  to 
justify  ecclesiastical  C^esarism. 

In  the  third  place,  St.  Paul  intends  to  imply  that  the 
circumstances  reported  to  him  as  to  the  state  of  the 
Galatian  churches  justify  a  suspicion  of  bad  faith  on 
the  part  of  the  college  at  Jerusalem,  and,  in  particular, 
of  James.  It  is  plain  that  the  agents  of  this  eminent 
person  disturbed  the  peace  of  Antioch,  brought  about 
the  vacillation  of  Peter,  and  even  2^erverted  Barnabas. 
It  is  difficult  to  avoid  the  conclusion,  that  the  same 


264  PAUL    OF  TARSUS. 

authority  had  been  employed  to  sanction  the  Propa- 
ganda in  Galatia.  What  else  is  the  meaning  of  those 
allusions  to  some  great  personages  in  "  the  angel  from 
heaven,"  "those  who  seemed  to  be  something,"  who 
"seemed  to  be  pillars,"  they  "who  would  shut  you  out 
of  the  Church  that  they  may  be  the  objects  of  your 
admiration,"  of  him  "  who  is  to  bear  his  own  judgment 
whosoever  he  be  ?  "  These  expressions  can  hardly  ap- 
ply to  obscure  and  unauthorized  preachers,  who,  with- 
out any  jjersonal  or  external  recommendation,  were 
traversing  the  AjDostle's  doctrine.  Imi^ressible  as  the 
Galatians  might  have  been,  they  would  hardly  have 
been  turned  from  the  freedom  which  St.  Paul's  gospel 
gave  them,  at  the  hands  of  such  a  missionary,  to  sub- 
mit to  the  Jewish  rite  and  the  Jewish  ceremonial,  and 
this  by  the  arguments  of  strangers,  unless  those  persons 
had  come  armed  with  very  full  credentials.  Luther 
does  not  denounce  Tetzel,  but  the  Pojdc  whom  Tetzel 
represents.  St.  Paul  is  not  thinking  of  nobodies,  when 
he  is  so  exceedingly  plain-spoken  in  the  wish  which  he 
utters  against  those  who  troubled  his  converts. 

Nothing  can  be  more  false  and  more  delusive  than 
to  imagine  that  the  first  teachers  of  the  Christian 
religion  were  men  whose  harmony  of  opinion  and  ac- 
tion was  complete,  who  entertained  one  view  only  of 
the  Gospel,  and  who  had  neither  difference,  nor  debate, 
nor  quarrel.  They  were  not  unconscious  mouth-pieces 
of  a  supernatural  inspiration,  automata  of  some  uncon- 
trollable enthusiasm,  unanimous  machines,  but  were 
men  of  like  passions  with  ourselves,  men  with  charac- 


HIS   TACT  AND   BROADNESS.  265 

ters,  impulses,  affections,  fears,  dislikes  —  were  human 
in  the  mistakes  they  made,  and  in  the  truths  which 
they  embraced  and  enunciated.  It  is  sheer  superstition 
to  treat  them  as  more  than  men,  as  other  than  men, 
however  highly  we  may  value  their  labors,  and  rever- 
ence the  spirit  which  generally  guided  their  thoughts, 
their  actions,  and  their  words.  If  we  make  them  un- 
real and  transcendental  personages,  we  do  them  a  great 
injustice,  and  ourselves  a  certain  mischief,  because  all 
free  inquiry  into  their  motives  and  feelings  is  suspected 
as  a  challenge  of  their  authority,  and  every  other  form 
of  commentary  becomes  mere  verbiage  shed  around 
a  foregone  conclusion.  They  are  not  stars  fixed  round 
the  great  central  Light,  and  differing  only  in  glory  and 
goodness  from  Him  who  is  the  centre  of  their  system. 
But  they  have  what  light  they  possess  from  reflection, 
and  feel  themselves  immeasurably  distant  from  the 
Power  which  illuminates  them. 

Such  men  as  St.  Paul,  who  have  seen  much  of  the 
world,  —  have  made  human  nature  and  human  charac- 
ter their  careful  study,  and  who  know  how  much  of 
both  nature  and  character  is  due  to  circumstances, 
education,  association,  habit,  —  are  inevitably  tolerant, 
invariably  indifferent  to  mere  varieties  of  feeling  and 
peculiarities  of  manner.  When  men  of  St.  Paul's 
intelligence  are  animated  by  a  desire  to  do  good  to 
those  with  whom  they  are  brought  in  contact,  they 
use  these  differences  discreetly,  and  easily  accommodate 
themselves  to  idiosyncrasies  of  race  and  character.  In 
a  word,  they  possess  tact,,  and  a  conscientious,  self- 
12 


266  PAUL   OF   TARSUS. 

denying,  earnest,  active,  generous  nature,  which  is  also 
gifted  with  tact  or  discretion,  wields  among  those  with 
whom  it  is  conversant  an  irresistible  influence.  And, 
on  the  other  hand,  they  who  live  in  a  little  world  of 
their  own,  —  be  they  apostles  or  ordinary  men,  —  con- 
tract a  narrow  and  exclusive  temper,  set  great  store  by 
trifles,  are  conservative  and  tenacious  on  minor  points, 
insist  on  literal  obedience,  are  passionately  fond  of  con- 
formity, are  jealous  for  the  letter,  are  slow  to  under- 
stand the  spirit.  As  time  went  on,  and  Paul  became 
more  catholic  in  his  teaching  and  manner,  the  ascetic 
college  at  Jerusalem  became  more  scrupulous,  precise, 
rigorous,  exacting.  In  the  presence  of  a  great  and 
comprehensive  genius,  they  are  willing  to  effect  a  com- 
promise, Avill  acknowledge  that  there  is  a  world  be- 
yond their  experience.  But  when  he  is  gone,  the  old 
exclusiveness  usurps  its  place  anew  in  their  minds,  they 
forget  their  concessions,  they  torture  themselves  with 
the  idea  that  they  have  gone  too  far,  and  seek  to  re- 
tract what  they  have  granted.  When  St.  Paul  was  at 
Jerusalem,  James  gave  him  the  right  hand  of  fellowship. 
When  he  is  gone  to  Antioch,  the  emissaries  of  James 
follow  him  in  order  to  revoke  in  detail  all  that  had  been 
previously  allowed. 

The  spirit  which  influenced  the  apostolic  society  at 
Jerusalem  is  by  no  means  extinct.  It  is  possible  to 
conceive  the  case  of  some  missionary  who  has  spread 
the  light  of  the  Gospel  among  the  heathen,  and  has 
won  over  abundant  converts.  These  converts  run  well, 
sufi^er  many  things.     They  may  even   submit  to  mar- 


A  PHASE   OF  HUMAN  NATURE.  267 

tyrdom  with  courage  and  constancy,  braving  death  and 
torture  on  behalf  of  the  creed  which  they  have  era- 
braced,  and  in  the  faith  or  confidence  which  they  en- 
tertain. A  persecution  as  bitter  as  any  to  which  the 
early  Christians  were  subjected,  may  fall  upon  them, 
and  they  may  perish  numerously  —  man,  woman,  child 
—  under  the  hand  of  pitiless  enemies.  They  may  be 
exposed  to  the  most  dangerous  calumny  which  can  be 
raised  against  one  who  wishes  to  reform  or  restore  the 
society  in  which  he  lives,  —  that,  namely,  of  unfriendli- 
ness to  established  institutions  —  of  being  unsocial,  un- 
patriotic, traitorous.  The  remnant  which  is  left  after 
the  hurricane  may  win  tolerance  from  its  persecutors  ^— 
may  even  convert  them.  Unluckily,  however,  when 
the  heroes  of  this  spiritual  warfare  attract  the  attention 
of  such  Christian  societies  as  have  lived  at  ease,  it  is 
found  that  they  are  destitute  of  some  form,  or  mode  of 
government,  or  ritual,  which  is  accepted  among  certain 
other  communities.  They  have,  it  is  true,  faith  in 
Christ,  and  have  obeyed  the  law  of  the  Gospel,  striving 
unto  death.  They  have  never  heard  of  the  form, 
ritual,  or  mode  of  government,  for  the  Scriptures  are 
silent  on  such  topics,  and  they  have  learned  little  be- 
yond what  is  written  in  the  New  Testament.  But 
they  are  now  to  be  informed,  that  unless  they  accept 
the  system  of  which  they  now  hear  for  the  first  time, 
they  cannot  be  saved ;  that  faith  in  God  and  His  Christ 
is  nothing  except  they  have  faith  in  a  hierarchy  and  a 
liturgy.  It  is  easy  to  anticipate  what  would  have  been 
the  attitude  of  St.  Paul  towards  such  intruders.     He 


268  PAUL  OF   TARSUS. 

has  left  it  on  record  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Galatians. 
He  tells  us  his  own  practice  when,  in  the  Epistle  to  the 
Romans,  he  repudiates  building  on  another's  founda- 
tion. 

In  quitting  this  topic  of  the  vexations  which  St.  Paul 
had  to  endure  at  the  hands  of  the  Church  in  Jerusalem, 
it  is  j^roper  to  remark  that,  if  we  can  trust  the  genuine- 
ness of  the  First  Epistle  to  the  Thessalonians  —  and 
the  weight  of  internal  evidence  is  overwhelmingly  in 
its  favor  —  there  was  a  time  in  which  the  example  of 
the  Jewish  churches  might  be  held  up  to  Gentile  con- 
verts. St.  Paul  speaks  of  the  Thessalonians  as  followers 
of  the  churches  of  God  which  are  in  Judea.  But  it  is 
not  likely,  after  he  had  borne  the  provocation  which 
was  given  him  in  Antioch  and  Galatia,  that  he  could 
have  used  such  language  of  those  "who  came  fi'om 
James." 

St.  Paul  rests  his  claims  to  the  apostolate  on  the 
providence  of  God,  and  on  the  marks  of  favor  with 
which  his  mission  had  been  supported.  In  these 
particulars  he  did  not  fill  short  of  those  who  affected 
to  be  specially  apostles.  He  uses  a  term  familiar  in  the 
nomenclature  of  the  Aristotelian  logic,  to  denote  his 
destination  for  the  high  office  which  he  fulfilled.  He 
was  separated  as  an  Apostle,  defined,  so  to  speak,  to  the 
duty.  Christ  was  revealed  to  him,  riot,  as  has  been 
suggested,  to  tell  him  the  facts  of  the  Master's  life,  or 
to  implant  in  him  the  discourses  of  the  great  Teacher, 
or  even  to  narrate  to  him  the  wonders  which  He 
wrought,  —  for  it  is  impossible  to  doubt,  that  had  this 


HIS   LOYALTY   TO   CHRIST.  269 

been  the  case,  frequent  quotations  from  such  a  literal 
revelation  would  have  been  given  in  the  epistles,  —  but 
to  inform  him  as  to  the  spiritual  significance  of  Christ's 
coming,  and  to  impart  to  him  the  Gospel  which  he 
should  convey.  Except,  therefore,  in  the  passage  where 
he  describes  the  institution  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  Christ 
is  not  a  man  who  lived  among  men  and  taught  them, 
but  a  Divine  being  who  wields  the  power  of  God,  and 
by  Himself  associates  man  with  his  Maker.  In  the 
Gospels,  Christ  is  perfect  Humanity.  He  is  deified 
Humanity  in  the  Apocalypse.  But  in  the  Epistles  of 
Paul,  though  He  is  intensely  personal.  He  is  a  Power, 
an  Illumination,  a  Lord  of  dead  and  living,  a  Redeemer, 
a  Judge,  a  Being  whom  men  tempt,  whom  men  love, 
reverence,  serve.  In  the  gospels.  He  is  the  highest  of 
Teachers ;  in  the  ejoistles,  He  is  the  Son  of  God  and 
the  Brother  of  man. 

The  intense  and  unvarying  loyalty  which  St.  Paul 
felt  towards  Christ,  the  profound  faith  or  trust  which 
he  had  in  Him,  were  his  hope  and  consolation,  the 
guarantee  of  his  mission,  the  absorbing  object  of  his 
life.  This  comfort  was  clouded  only  by  one  recollec- 
tion,—  the  fact,  namely,  that  he  had  once  persecuted 
those  who  believed  in  his  Master.  Hence,  in  no  tone 
of  hyperbole,  but  in  sober  and  sad  earnest,  he  speaks 
of  himself  as  chief  among  sinners,  because  he  had 
blasphemed  Christ,  persecuted  His  followers,  insulted 
His  Gospel.  He  can  excuse  himself,  nay,  can  explain 
God's  mercy  to  him,  only  on  the  ground  that  he  was 
ignorant,  and  had  none  of  that  trust  in  Christ,  which  is 


270  PAUL    OF   TARSUS. 

now  his  safety  and  his  comfort.  Similarly,  he  speaks 
of  himself  to  the  Corinthians  as  the  least  of  the  apos- 
tles, as  unfit  to  be  called  an  apostle,  and  for  the  reason 
that  he  persecuted  the  Church  of  God.  He  refers  to 
his  previous  career  in  his  energetic  letter  to  the  Gala- 
tians,  and  again  in  the  last  epistle  which  he  wrote  to 
any  company  of  his  converts  —  that  to  the  Philippians  ; 
when  his  mind  was  most  completely  absorbed  in  the 
retrospect  of  his  ministry,  and  when,  having  seen  that 
his  life  w^as  Christ,  he  reckoned  that  his  death  was 
gain.  In  the  midst  of  his  consolations,  in  the  best  sea- 
son of  his  hope,  this  remorse  was  always  before  him. 

It  is  quite  in  nature  that  this  memory  was  far  keener 
to  the  Apostle  than  it  was  to  those  who  a  few  years 
before  were  j^ersecuted  by  him.  Men  forget  the  wrong 
done  to  them  more  easily  than  the  wrong  they  have 
done.  They  remember  the  latter  in  one  of  two  fash- 
ions. They  either  hate  energetically  the  object  of 
the  injury  —  rousing  themselves  by  every  motive  they 
can  frame  to  excuse  the  wrong,  and  continuing  it ;  or 
they  are  full  of  tenderness  towards  those  whom  they 
have  dealt  unjustly  by  —  eagerly  seeking  out  occasions, 
long  after  all  other  recollection  of  the  facts  has  faded, 
to  relieve  themselves  by  showing  kindness,  by  accumu- 
lating benefits  on  those  whom  they  have  injured.  It  is 
in  keeping  with  this  feeling,  that  Paul  speaks  so  lov- 
ingly of  those  who  were  in  Christ  before  him,  that  he 
declares  he  would  lay  down  his  life  —  nay,  even  be 
rejected  fi-om  the  Divine  favor,  if  he  could  only  secure 
the  salvation  of  those  by  whom  he  would  have  dealt  so 


HIS  EARLY  MEMORIES  REPROACHFUL,     271 

savagely  if  they  had  embraced  the  Gospel  in  the  days 
when  he  "  breathed  out  threats  and  murder." 

What  does  he  mean  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Galatians 
when  he  speaks  of  the  excessive  persecution  and  havoc 
which  he  inflicted  on  the  Church  of  the  believing 
Jews  ?  Does  it  not  seem  as  though  he  had  tortured 
them,  as  he  had  himself  been  tortured,  when  he  reckons 
up  the  sufierings  of  his  apostolic  life?  Once  in  the 
history  of  the  Israelite  nation,  the  tribe  to  which  Saul 
belonged  had  nearly  been  exterminated,  and  the  sur- 
vivors were  thereafter  no  way  lacking  in  zeal.  The 
fugitives  of  Rimmon,  the  residue  of  Gibeah  —  the 
remnant  of  men,  women,  and  children,  who  escaped 
that  terrible  slaughter  —  were  headstrong  and  fanat- 
ical in  future.  Paul  had  the  spirit  of  his  ancestor, 
who  sought  to  slay  the  Gibeonites  in  his  zeal  for  the 
children  of  Israel  and  Judah.  And  when  he  was  con- 
verted, he  retained  not  only  the  recollection  of  Ste- 
phen's death,  but  of  the  multiplied  murders  which  he 
had  ordered  or  encouraged,  when,  during  the  wild 
anarchy  of  Caligula's  reign,  he  sought  and  obtained 
authority  from  the  chief  priests  to  bind  and  slay,  fol- 
lowing the  Nazarenes  to  strange  cities  and  compelling 
them  to  blaspheme  Christ.  His  resolution  and  strength 
of  i^urpose  were  the  traits  of  his  youth,  his  manhood, 
and  his  age.  Thus,  in  later  days,  when  the  real  work 
of  Paul  was  understood  and  acknowledged,  and  the 
old  jealousies  had  become  extinct,  the  Chiistian  com- 
mentator interpreted  the  blessing  of  Jacob,  and  dis- 
covered in  his   prophecy  the   career   of  the   greatest 


272  .    PAUL   OF   TARSUS. 

among  the  sons  of  Benjamin,  —  "  Benjamin  shall  devour 
in  the  morning  as  a  ravenous  wolf,  and  in  the  evening 
give  nurture." 

When  St.  Paul  ^a'ote  his  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  his 
missionary  labors  had  extended  in  a  circle,  as  he  roughly 
names  it,  from  Jerusalem  to  the  eastern  coast  of  the 
Adriatic,  —  this  vast  region  having  been  untrodden  by 
any  Christian  foot  except  his  own,  and  those  of  his 
disciples.  As  yet,  he  had  not  visited  Rome,  nor  did 
he  visit  it  till  he  came  thither  as  a  prisoner.  He  re- 
mained at  Rome  for  two  years;  the  statement  made  at 
the  conclusion  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  implying 
that  his  residence  in  the  metropolis  ceased  at  that  time. 
The  narrative  of  his  labors  after  tliis  period  is  wholly 
lost  to  us.  He  had  intended  a  journey  to  Spain,  and 
had  resolved  to  take  Rome  on  his  way.  It  is  reason- 
able to  conclude  that  he  carried  out  his  purpose,  and 
that  the  origins  of  churches  in  the  far  west  of  the 
ancient  world  were  the  preaching  of  this  unwearied 
Apostle.  There  are  legends  of  his  having  visited 
Gaul  and  Britain.  That  his  writings  were  known  in 
these  western  churches  is  plain  from  Irenseus ;  that  his 
authority  as  a  teacher  of  the  Gospel  was  recognized  in 
those  regions,  even  before  it  was  accepted  in  the  east- 
ern world,  is  plain  from  the  quotations  which  the  early 
Fathers  of  the  west  make  from  his  writings,  —  from 
the  store  which  they  set  by  his  robust  and  practical 
doctrine. 

In  point  of  fact,  St.  Paul  possessed,  together  with 
the  spu'it  of  a  missionary,  much  of  the  shrewdness  of  a 


PAUL'S  POLITICAL   SHREWDNESS.         273 

statesman.  But  he  was  no  doctrinaire.  He  was  the 
founder  of  churches,  not  the  fraraer  of  constitutions. 
He  had  none  of  that  pedantry  which  insists  on  a  uni- 
form method  of  ecclesiastical  government,  and  disdains 
any  dij^lomatic  intercourse  between  diverse  forms  of 
church  administration.  He  knew  that  religious,  just 
like  civil,  communities  can,  if  they  are  left  to  them- 
selves, discover  and  adapt  to  their  own  ends  the  machin- 
ery of  tlieir  own  organization.  Hence,  even  in  the 
pastoral  epistles,  —  where  we  should  naturally  expect 
some  distinct  theory  of  church  government,  —  his  ad- 
vice bears  rather  on  the  qualifications  of  those  whom 
the  churches  should  select  as  their  officers,  than  on  the 
administration  or  government  of  the  Church.  Deacons 
there  must  be,  —  for  the  essence  of  the  Christian  life  in 
the  early  ages  of  the  Church  was  mutual  succor.  Elders 
there  might  be,  —  for  the  habits  of  Judaism  naturally 
influenced  the  Christian  converts.  Or  there  might  be 
some  special  overseer,  or  overseers,  who  made  them- 
selves responsible  for  the  good  government  of  the 
Saints.  Or  there  might  be  no  officers  whatsoever, 
beyond  some  temporary  chairman  appointed  to  keep 
order,  —  as  was  the  characteristic  of  the  Corinthian 
church,  and,  apparently,  that  of  Justin's  place  of  wor- 
ship at  Nablous.  But  no  one  can  cite  the  Apostle  as 
an  authority  on  the  creation  of  a  caste  of  ecclesiastics, 
—  as  the  founder,  or  even  the  adviser  of  a  hierarchy. 

The  activity  of  the  Apostle's  mind,  the  energy  of  his 
spiritual  nature,  continued  to  the  last  days  of  his  life ; 
and,  unfortunately,  so  did  the  bitterness  of  his  enemies. 

12*  R 


274  PAUL   OF  TARSUS. 

It  is  manifest  that  the  Second  Epistle  to  Timothy  was 
written  just  before  his  second  trial  and  condemnation; 
when,  in  the  general  desertion  of  his  friends,  he  was 
expecting  death ;  and  when  he  almost  dreaded  that  his 
beloved  disciple  would  join  the  timid  or  the  malcon- 
tent. But  the  words  of  the  epistle  are  as  full  of  reU- 
gious  confidence  as  any  which  he  ever  penned  or 
dictated  before,  when  his  career  was  in  mid-course. 
He  is  still  the  preacher,  the  apostle,  the  teacher  of  the 
Gentiles.  There  are  sayings  which  may  be  trusted, 
even  in  the  darkness  of  unbelief  and  worldliness ;  and 
these  sayings  are  to  be  continued  through  a  long  and 
unbroken  succession  of  teachers.  There  is  no  sign  in 
the  last  words  of  the  Apostle,  that  old  age,  imprison- 
ment, ingratitude,  sickness,  had  worked  any  weakness 
in  his  will,  or  diminished,  in  any  single  particular,  that 
which  had  been  the  absorbing  interest  of  his  life.  He 
has  enemies  as  well  as  false  friends,  —  Phygellus  and 
Hermogenes,  Hymenaeus  and  Philetus,  Alexander  the 
coppersmith.  And  he  has  friends  —  Luke  and  Onesiph- 
orus  —  besides  those  who  were  faithful  to  him  at  Rome, 
and  in  whom  antiquaries  have  discovered  a  Roman 
bishop,  a  Roman  senator,  and  a  British  princess.  He  has 
his  word  for  his  enemies,  his  expressions  of  loving  regard 
for  his  friends.  With  such  men  as  Paul,  there  is  no 
cessation  in  the  fervency  with  which  they  carry  out  the 
purpose  of  their  life.  They  relinquish  their  hold  on 
the  work  before  them,  only  when  they  die.  The  vet- 
eran falls  on  the  field  in  full  j^anoply.  The  helmsman  is 
torn  from  the  rudder  while  his  grasp  is  as  vigorous  as 
ever. 


HIS   LABORS   AND    TROUBLES.  275 

It  is  a  matter  for  profound  regret,  that  the  Avorld  has 
had  to  undergo  the  irreparable  loss  of  the  letters  which 
the  Apostle  wrote  during  the  last  years  of  his  life,  and 
of  the  narrative  in  which  it  is  probable  that  Luke 
recounted  the  events  of  his  western  journeys,  of  his 
second  captivity,  and  of  his  death.  The  impression  is 
irresistible  that  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  is  a  series  of 
mutilated  fragments,  —  the  remains  of  a  far  larger  his- 
tory, which  conclude  abruptly,  but  which  originally 
contained  a  complete  narrative  of  Paul's  life.  Were 
this  narrative  preserved,  we  should  learn  what  was  the 
activity  of  those  five  or  six  years  which  elapsed  be- 
tween the  4'esidence  in  the  hired  house  at  Rome  and 
the  chain  of  which  Onesiphorus  was  not,  though  so 
many  others  were,  ashamed.  We  might,  perhaps,  hear 
also  how  it  was  that  all  in  Asia,  who  had  owed  so 
much  to  the  Apostle,  were  turned  away  from  him ; 
and  what  were  the  machinations  by  which  Phygellus 
and  Hermogenes  were  constituted  the  leaders  of  this 
schism.  That  it  was  the  old  rancor  admits  of  little 
doubt.  These  intruders  must  have  brought  forward 
the  old  charges,  —  that  he  had  advised  a  compromise 
with  idolatry,  that  he  had  taught  everywhere  Sgainst 
the  people,  and  the  Law,  and  the  Temple.  The  malice 
of  jDolemical  rancor  knows  no  bounds,  is  unsleeping, 
implacable,  insatiable.  Paul  had  offended  the  conserv- 
atism of  the  Jewish  Cliristians,  and  their  vengeance 
kept  no  truce. 

More  than  once  in  his  writings,  Paul  has  described 
the  labors  and  troubles  of  his  apostolate,  and  always 


276  PAUL    OF   TARSUS. 

with  exceeding  clearness  and  concentration.  For 
example,  lie  recounts  the  characteristic  traits  of  his 
ministry  in  a  j^assage  of  great  beauty  and  eloquence, 
when  writing  his  last  existing  epistle  to  the  Corinth- 
ians. He  begins  by  avowing  his  anxiety  to  avoid 
offence.  We  know  that  he  accommodated  himself  to 
all,  Jew  or  Gentile,  when  no  real  question  of  con- 
science was  involved;  that  he  discouraged  sectarian 
narrowness,  and  dissuaded  his  followers  from  those 
theological  cavils  which  he  rightly  named  doubtful  dis- 
putings.  This  lenity  of  opinion  was  of  course  mis- 
represented, and  Paul  was  charged  with  the  vice  of  a 
perverted  casuistry,  —  of  having  advised  4;o  do  evil 
that  good  might  come  of  it.  But  the  motive  which  he 
had  in  practising  this  wise  complaisance,  was  that  of 
preserving  the  office  of  the  evangelist  from  ridicule, 
of  disarming  dislike  to  the  strange  doctrine  which  he 
preached,  —  that,  namely,  of  salvation  by  reason  of  the 
resurrection  of  a  crucified  prophet,  —  by  careful  and 
studied  courtesy.  He  knew  very  well  that  earnestness 
and  conviction  seldom  fail  to  win  men  over,  if  they  are 
coupled  Avith  a  genial  consideration  for  the  feelings  of 
others^  with  the  charity  which  suffers  long  and  is  gentle ; 
with  the  love  which  he  had  previously  described  in  so 
exalted  and  so  imj^assioned  a  strain. 

As  he  defers  so  much  to  the  habits  and  feelings  of 
men,  so  he  is  unsparing  of  himself,  as  becomes  the 
minister  of  God.  The  most  obvious  and  recurrent  of 
his  experiences  are  those  pains  and  j^enalties  which  he 
undergoes  in   order  to   commend   the  Gospel   which 


EIS   PERSEVERANCE  AND  ENDURANCE.     277 

he  preaches,  —  the  endurance,  the  heavy  cares,  the 
straits,  the  han--breadth  escapes,  the  personal  violence, 
the  imprisonments,  the  restlessness,  toil,  sleeplessness, 
privations  which  he  has  to  bear  on  behalf  of  his  con- 
victions. But  there  are  also  exacted  from  him  a 
blameless  life,  a  copious  knowledge,  extreme  j^atience, 
gentleness,  enthusiasm,  unsuspected  and  disinterested 
devotion,  truthfulness  of  spirit,  the  power  which  God 
gives  the  pious,  a  scrupulous  and  perpetual  fairness,  the 
armor  of  righteousness,  as  he  calls  it,  on  either  side. 
And  all  this  is  to  be  maintained  against  discredit  and 
calumny,  or,  perhaps  harder  still,  amidst  good  repute 
and  fair  report.  Nor,  is  it  to  be  wondered  at,  that  this 
apostohc  character  is  in  appearance  made  up  of  contra- 
dictions, is  interpreted  variously.  Paul  himself  under- 
stood it  to  be  so,  and  states  the  different  picture  which 
it  presents  to  those  who  can  understand  it,  and  those 
who  look  on  it  as  Festus  did. 

A  life  of  this  kind  seems  a  daily  death,  while  it  gains 
perpetual  vitality :  one  of  ceaseless  grief,  and  yet  of 
constant  consolation ;  of  deep  poverty,  but  copious  in 
its  power  of  enriching  others ;  as  utterly  destitute,  and 
yet  grasping  at  and  containing  a  wealth  which  tran- 
scends all  worldly  possessions.  For,  in  fact,  if  tried  by 
any  human  standard,  these  endless  toils,  and  ceaseless 
dangers  w^ould  warrant  men  in  those  contemptuous 
jibes  which  were  commonly  cast  on  the  early  Chris- 
tians. But  they  balanced  against  misery  and  contempt 
that  certainty  with  which  their  enthusiasm  supplied 
them,   of  an  assured  victory,  an  everlasting  triumph 


278  PAUL    OF  TARSUS. 

over  their  enemies,  and  the  enemies  of  their  Master. 
The  glory  to  come  is  infinitely  greater  than  the  present 
distress ;  the  toil  of  the  race,  the  abstinence  and  hard- 
ship which  constitute  the  training  for  this  suj^reme 
struggle,  is  as  nothing  when  compared  with  the  j^rize 
which  the  rigjhteous  Judg-e  is  certain  to  bestow.  So 
enraptured  were  these  men  by  the  jDrospect;  that  they 
scorned  the  world  and  its  treasures ;  so  assured  were 
they  of  the  future,  that  they  took  no  care  for  the  pres- 
ent. They  were  even  so  entranced  with  the  blessed- 
ness of  the  time  to  come,  of  the  day  which  they 
believed  to  be  at  hand,  that  they  did  not  care  to  j^ray 
for  vengeance  on  their  foes.  They  do  not  seem  to 
have  thought  of  that  alienable  privilege  of  wretched- 
ness, —  the  invocation  of  the  wrath  of  God  on  the  per- 
secutor and  wrong-doer.  The  Gospel  is  more  concerned 
with  the  unspeakable  comfort  and  consolation  of  trust 
in  God,  and  in  his  Christ,  than  with  the  misery  of  those 
who  forget  the  one  and  repudiate  the  other;  is  more 
conversant  with  mercy  than  with  judgment. 

The  life  of  Paul  was  one  of  enthusiasm,  but  of  en- 
thusiasm coupled  with  a  sober  judgment,  and  lofty 
morality.  With  him  faith  was  the  guide  of  action, 
action  was  the  manifestation  of  faith.  To  such  a 
•nature  nothing  is  impossible.  It  can,  of  a  truth,  turn 
the  world  upside-down  —  reconstruct  it.  There  is  no 
state  of  society,  no  general  habit  of  thought  which  can 
come  in  contact  with  it,  and  yet  remain  unaffected  by 
its  power.  Give  it  power  of  speech  ;  and  let  human 
nature  be  ever  so  cold  or  sluggish,  it  will  stir  it  up  to 


POWER    OF  ENTHUSIASM.  279 

warmth  and  energy.  It  is  an  error  to  imagine  that 
mankind  is  less  impressible  in  our  own  age  than  it  has 
been  in  bygone  times  —  to  believe  that  enthusiasm  is 
a  mere  historical  force  —  to  think  that  it  is  impracti- 
cable, in  these  later  days,  and,  in  the  greatness  of  mod- 
ern society,  to  move  nations  by  a  vast  and  wide-spread 
sympathy.  The  hour  for  such  an  upheaval  is  always 
at  hand :  it  is  only  the  man  that  is  wanting.  There  was 
never  an  age  in  which  men's  hearts  so  much  failed 
them  for  fear,  as  that  in  which  Paul  began  his  mission- 
ary labors ;  no  state  of  society  which  was  less  likely  to 
be  roused  to  religious  zeal,  less  apt  to  fervently  accept 
a  spiritual  creed.  A  period  of  great  social  suffering  is 
no  way  favorable  to  a  religious  impulse,  but  is  more 
likely  to  advise  that  license  of  despair  which  gives  the 
gloomy  counsel,  "  Let  us  eat  and  drink,  for  to-morrow 
we  die."  At  that  mournful  epoch,  one  man  laid  deeply 
the  foundations  of  a  new  faith,  certainly  through  half, 
and  probably  through  the  greatest  part  of  the  vast 
Koman  empire.  To  repeat  the  same  events,  it  is  only 
necessary  that  the  same  characters  should  reappear  — 
with  the  same  purpose,  the  same  zeal,  the  same  per- 
severance, the  same  judgment,  the  same  tenderness 
and  courage.  But  a  great  missionary  is,  perhaps,  even 
rarer  than  a  great  general,  for  his  genius  is  higher,  his 
task  more  difficult. 

There  always  will  be  those  who  seek  to  conquer  or 
enlist  the  S}^npathies  of  men.  If  they  whose  culture  is 
high,  and  whose  motives  are  pure,  disclaim  all  enthusi- 
asm, and,  in  their  attempts  to  assist  the  progress  of 


280  PAUL   OF   TARSUS. 

mankind,  shun  warmth,  fervor,  sympathy  as  iiTational 
and  deceptive  impulses,  and  substitute  for  the  awak- 
ening of  man's  moral  sense  the  hard  logic  of  a  bare 
moral  system,  they  will  never  wield  the  deliverer's  rod, 
will  never  be  able  to  rescue  a  nation  from  the  bondage 
of  a  merely  material  life,  and  renew  the  image  of  God 
in  the  soul  of  man.  The  religious  sense  is  no  inven- 
tion of  human  policy,  though  it  may  be  made  its  tool. 
It  is  the  necessary  outcome  of  two  facts.  Man  is,  col- 
lectively, far  from  ha^dng  reached  the  virtue  which 
some  have  arrived  at  —  still  farther  removed  from  that 
which  all  might  achieve.  The  only  means  by  which 
the  growth  of  this  perfection  can  be  assisted,  is  the 
disinterested  self-denial  of  those  who  set  to  the  work  of 
saving  and  serving  their  fellows.  But  the  willingness 
to  serve  man  in  this  manner  comes  from  the  conviction 
that  such  beneficence  is  the  work  of  God,  and  the  will 
of  God. 

It  is  a  mournful  sight  —  a  sad  presage,  when  the 
natural  leader  of. men  refuses  his  office,  and  flies  to 
that  Epicurean  ease  which,  in  the  early  ages  of  Chris- 
tianity, in  the  flourishing  times  of  Judaism,  in  the 
best  days  of  practical  Stoicism,  and  even  during  the 
last  struggles  of  a  reformed  Paganism,  was  abhorred 
as  the  worst  treason  against  human  duties  and  human 
hopes.  But  it  is  a  more  mournful  spectacle,  a  sadder 
presage,  when  they  who  can  guide  and  refomi  a  world 
by  speech  and  action,  bow  down  to  and  worship  suc- 
cessful force. 

Such  a  degradation  of  genius  and  power  is  the  last 


HIS   IDEA   OF   CHRISTS   MISSION.  281 

consequence  of  neglecting  these  public  duties  which 
men  owe  to  men,  and  in  the  disinterested  satisfaction 
of  which  the  great  Apostle  not  only  saw  that  he  was 
a  follower  of  Christ,  but  avowed  that  he  was  filling 
up  that  which  is  left  of  Christ's  sufferings.  They  who 
will  not  lead  when  they  can,  must  in  the  end  honor 
those  who  usurp  their  office,  will  extol  the  charlatan, 
will  walk  contentedly  in  the  triumphal  procession  of 
those  who  win  the  foremost  place  by  chicanery,  fraud, 
or  violence,  and  Avill  even  shout  a  paean  over  the 
humiliation  of  mankind.  It  may  be  that  they  will, 
like  the  four  hundred  who  stood  before  Ahab,  promise 
their  hero  victory,  and  assure  him  that  God  is  on  his 
side,  while  no  Micaiah  is  left  to  foretell  the  inevitable 
doom  of  license  and  injustice.  Humanity  is  never  so 
degraded  as  when  its  highest  powers  are  worshipping- 
its  lowest  forces,  when  genius  utters  an  encomium  on 
wickedness  in  high  places. 

To  the  early  Christians,  and  notably  to  the  apostle 
Paul,  power  used  for  merely  selfish  and  sensual  ends 
was  Antichrist.  The  mission  of  Christ,  according  to 
these  votaries,  was  the  recovery  of  the  human  race,  by 
the  agency  of  moral  forces,  disinterested  labor,  fervid 
self-sacrifice.  They  believed  that  Christ  deliberately 
relinquished  power  which  made  Him  higher  than  all 
created  beings,  in  order  to  restore  mankind  to  the 
image  of  God,  and  that  during  His  life  on  earth  He 
could  have  returned  to  that  power  had  he  chosen  to 
leave  the  regeneration  of  man  imperfect,  since  it  was 
possible  to  efiect  that  regeneration  in  no  other  way  but 


282  PAUL    OF  TARSUS. 

by  self-abnegation.  They  had  not  yet  attempted  to 
define  the  process  by  which  this  enormous  boon  was 
conferred  on  mankind  through  the  life  and  death  of 
Christ,  but  they  were  assured  that  the  boon  had  been 
given,  and  that  it  was  given  only  by  reason  of  that 
voluntary  sacrifice. 

The  spirit  of  Antichrist  is  precisely  the  reverse.  It 
uses  power  for  selfish  ends,  and  it  must  degrade  man- 
kind in  proportion  to  its  success.  It  was  the  policy 
of  the  Greek  tyrant,  says  Aristotle,  to  keep  his  people 
impoverished,  mean-spirited,  suspicious  of  one  another, 
and  this  has  been  the  policy  of  every  oppressor  ever 
since.  All  virtue,  courage,  truth,  are  his  enemies ;  all 
baseness,  meanness,  falsehood  are  his  allies.  And 
just  as  they  who  work  according  to  the  pattern  of 
Christ's  life  are  the  perpetual  representatives  of  His 
mission,  so  they  who  follow  the  sordid  ends  of  a  cold 
selfishness  are  incarnations  of  Antichrist,  while  they 
Avho  extol  such  a  theory  of  human  life  and  action 
are  the  preachers  and  apostles  of  this  devilish  revela- 
tion. In  the  days  of  Paul,  and  to  the  author  of  the 
Apocalypse,  Antichrist  was  incarnate  in  the  cruel 
and  frivolous  sensuaUty  of  Nero.  The  same  power 
has  been  recognized  in  every  personage  who  has  con- 
strained mankind  to  assert  that  he  is  the  agent  by 
which  the  mystery  of  iniquity  works ;  for  human 
nature  has  produced  her  monsters  and  23ortents,  and 
has  been  amazed  or  distressed  at  their  doings. 

The  ancient  world  busied  and  tortured  itself  with 
the  origin  of  evil  up  to  the  time  when  the  question  was 


MORAL   PROGRESS   BY  SUFFERING.        283 

finally  settled  by  the  dogma  of  original  sin,  by  which 
is  meant  the  transmitted  ^dce  with  which  an  act  of 
disobedience  infected  all  the  reputed  descendants  of 
a  reputed  ancestor.  Between  the  Gnostic  who  made 
evil  a  god,  and  the  Pelagian  who  asserted  that  it  was 
subjective  and  acquired,  a  host  of  thinkers  occupied 
themselves  with  this  mysterious  and  inexplicable  fact, 
some  tending  to  dualism,  some  to  that  Nihilism  which 
makes  all  acts,  in  so  far  as  they  bear  on  the  agent  only, 
indifferent  in  their  effects;  few  recognizing  the  truth, 
that  the  victory  of  man's  moral  nature  lies  in  the  ful- 
ness with  which  man  refers  all  the  facts  of  his  own 
being,  and  all  the  principles  of  his  own  action,  to 
the  behests  of  that  Divine  Law  whose  stringency  and 
completeness  are  demonstrated  by  overwhelming  ex- 
perience. 

Infinitely  more  startling,  however,  than  the  question 
of  the  origin  and  purpose  of  evil,  is  the  truth  referred 
to  above,  —  that  the  moral  progress  of  mankind  can 
be  effected  only  by  the  suffering  of  man.  The  hopes 
of  humanity  do  not  lie  in  the  fulness  with  which 
science  discovers  and  employs  the  forces  of  nature. 
On  the  contrary,  there  is  no  danger  which  is  more 
imminent  than  the  appropriation  of  these  powers  by 
the  coarsest  despotism  which  can  enslave  and  corrupt 
its  subjects.  It  does  not  consist  in  what  is  called 
culture,  because  art  and  poetry  are  easily  made  the 
slaves  of  that  wealth  which  is  willing  to  have  its 
existence  certified,  and  its  power  acknowledged  by  the 
homage   of    cultivated    parasites.     It   is   not   learning 


284  PAUL    OF   TARSUS. 

which  can  save  man ;  for,  at  the  best,  learning  only 
influences  a  few,  and  is  very  apt,  in  those  who  possess 
it,  to  degenerate  into  self-sufficiency  and  ease.  Least 
of  all,  do  the  hopes  of  man  lie  in  the  aggregation  of 
wealth ;  for  experience  tells  us  that  wealth  is  not  only 
apt  to  be  arrogant  and  domineering,  but  that  it  tends 
to  the  formation  of  a  coarse  and  harsh  oligarchy,  which 
is  degTaded  by  low  tastes,  and  is  prone  to  ferocious 
fears,  and  that  it  is  perhaps  better  to  discourage  the 
growth  of  opulence  than  to  admire  and  welcome  it. 
Nor,  finally,  do  the  hopes  of  humanity  reside  in  the 
adoption  of  any  form  of  polity.  It  may  be  that  one 
form  of  administration  is  better  than  another,  because 
it  offers  least  resistance  to  the  influence  which  ought 
to  leaven  society,  gives  a  freer  course  to  those  forces 
which  can  chasten  and  exalt  mankind.  Despotism 
degrades  us,  but  it  does  not  follow  that  liberty  purifies 
us.  The  atmosphere  is  cleared  of  its  accumulated 
poisons  by  some  furious  storm,  which  does  in  the  end 
bring  health  to  the  many,  but  bestows  its  benefits 
amidst  the  waste  and  ruin  of  those  whom  it  smites. 
And  so  the  moral  purification  of  society  is  effected  by 
the  suffering  of  those  whom  the  cleansing  storm  catches 
in  its  course ;  the  victory  of  the  most  righteous  cause 
demands  the  suffering  and  death  of  some  among  those 
who  enter  into  the  battle.  When  the  stronghold  of 
truth  and  virtue  is  to  be  built,  the  foundations  are 
laid  in  the  first-born,  and  the  youngest  perishes  before 
the  walls  are  finished.  Everywhere  we  have  to  witness 
the  reign  of  the  same  mysterious  law.     Thei-e  is  no 


THE    WORLD'S   DEBT  TO  THE  JEW.       285 

joy  which  is  not  bought  Tvith  sorrow,  no  haijpiness 
which  is  not  secured  by  pain.  The  Syrian  is  before, 
and  the  Philistine  is  behind,  and  men  must  perish  in 
arresting  the  march  of  each,  before  it  is  possible  that 
the  day  should  come  in  which  His  government  and 
His  peace  shall   increase,  and  have  no  end. 

It  has  been  observed  that  the  Jewish  race  has 
furnished  splendid  examples  of  dominant  energy  over 
almost  every  subject  upon  which  human  power  has 
been  able  to  exercise  itself,  —  in  other  words,  that 
it  has  exhibited  abundant  and  marvellous  examples 
of  concentration  and  force.  Perhaps  the  vigor  which 
it  really  possesses  has  been  exaggerated.  But,  it  is 
certain  that  the  world  is  indebted  to  the  Jew  for  two 
great  principles.  Israel  has  taught  the  unity  of  God, 
and,  therewith,  has  affirmed  the  reality  of  religion,  and 
the  obligation  of  man  to  society.  Other  races  have 
inculcated  the  necessity  of  loyalty  to  a  form  of  govern- 
ment. The  Athenian  and  the  Roman  did  so.  Bvit 
loyalty  to  a  government  inevitably  degenerates  into 
fetich  worship,  if  it  is  made  to  constitute  political 
virtue.  The  Jew  was  saved  from  this  risk  by  the  fact 
that  his  loyalty  was  not  wasted  on  an  institution,  but 
concentrated  on  his  race.  His  loyalty,  too,  was  not 
aggressive  but  defensive.  Only  once  in  the  long 
annals  of  this  people  was  Judaism  a  military  power. 
This  transient  splendor  is  even  now  remembered  in 
the  East,  —  where  historical  memory  is  ordinarily  only 
of  yesterday. 

But  the  Jew  has  suffered  a  perennial  martyrdom  for 


286  PAUL   OF   TARSUS. 

his  monotheism,  while  he  has  been  leavening  civihza- 
tion  with  his  belief.  For  the  sake  of  this  tenet,  he  has 
been  an  alien  among  nations,  has  been  persecuted, 
scorned,  trampled  on.  But  he  has  not  been  crushed. 
His  tenacious  vitality  is  a  standing  proof  that  it  is 
impossible  to  annihilate  a  germ  of  true  life.  He  has 
given  to  mankind  a  great  doctrine.  His  race  supplied 
humanity  with  one  —  and  that,  a  perfect  Teacher,  a 
perfect  Example,  the  chief  Saviour  of  mankind,  the 
Master  of  all  them  who  attempt  the  same  office.  His 
race  gave  the  world  the  great  exemplar  of  the  mission- 
ary—  the  wise,  loving,  fervent,  resolute  man  of  Tarsus, 
the  Apostle  of  the  world.  Pity  that  the  veil  is  still  on 
their  hearts,  as  it  was  when  Paul  wrote  and  predicted 
that  it  should  be  taken  away.  That  it  has  not  been 
removed,  is  the  fault  of  those  who  have  never  acknowl- 
edged what  mankind  owes  to  the  testimony  of  Israel, 
and,  therefore,  have  never  echoed  that  desire  of  the 
heart  and  prayer  which  he  who  suffered  so  much  for  his 
own  nation  constantly  entertained  and  uttered,  when 
he  thought  upon  the  deeds  God  had  done  for  Israel, 
and  the  service  which  Israel  has  done  for  humanity  and 
Christendom. 


CHAPTER  YIII. 

"  'TnO  us,"  says  St.  Paul,  "  whatever  may  be  believed 
■*■  to  exist  elsewhere  and  by  others,  there  is  one 
God,  the  Father,  the  source  of  all  existence,  the  object 
of  our  being;  and  there  is  one  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  by 
whose  agency  all  things  exist,  and  by  whom  we  are 
what  we  are."  Throughout  his  epistles  this  contrast  is 
perpetually  stated.  God  is  our  Father,  Christ  is  our 
Lord.  The  Lordship  which  Christ  exercises  is  fre- 
quently designated.  The  disciples  of  Christ,  the  recip- 
ients of  His  Gospel,  are  His  servants  or  (the  word  bore 
a  far  more  gentle  meaning  to  the  ancient  world)  His 
slaves.  He  has  purchased  them,  and  they  are  His ;  He 
has  renewed  or  regenerated  them,  and  they  are  there- 
upon a  new  creation.  He  is  their  future  Judge,  for  He 
is  to  come  from  heaven  again  in  order  to  execute  His 
last  office  in  the  great  scheme  of  redemption.  He  is 
to  gather  His  own  together,  in  order  that  they  may 
receive  those  indescribable  joys  which  will  reward 
their  patience.  And,  meanwhile.  He  is  related  to  them 
in  the  closest  and  most  personal  manner.  Every  phrase 
which  can  denote  the  nearest  and  most  indissoluble 
connection  of  which  we  can  have  experience,  is  adapted 
to  indicate  the  relation  of  Christ  to  His  people.     The 


288  PAUL    OF   TARSUS. 

favorite  analogy  which  St.  Paul  uses,  is  that  of  life  and 
intelligence  in  union  with  the  corporeity  of  man. 
Christ  is  to  His  Church  what  the  life,  soul,  intellect, 
spirit,  are  to  the  human  organism. 

Except  during  the  instant  ecstasy  on  the  road  to 
Damascus,  it  does  not  appear  that  Paul  ever  claims  to 
have  seen  Christ.  He  had  not  sat  at  His  feet,  and  he 
had  not  heard  that  voice  to  which  even  the  soldiers 
who  were  sent  to  take  Him  were  constrained  to  listen, 
and  listen  wonderingly,  when  they  said  on  their  return 
after  a  fruitless  errand  that  "  never  man  spake  like  this 
Man."  The  Twelve  had  enjoyed  the  benefit  of  His  in- 
struction for  a  lengthened  period.  He  had  expounded 
to  them  the  depths  of  the  Divine  Law,  and  had 
revealed  to  them  the  mysteries  of  the  kingdom  of 
heaven.  He  and  His  had  lived  together,  as  a  little 
community,  in  terms  of  the  closest  intimacy,  with  a 
common  purse,  sharing  plain  lodging  and  humble  fare. 
Christ  had  taught  the  Twelve  continuously.  The 
recorded  sayings  of  the  wise  Master  do  not  re^Dresent 
in  quantity  more  than  one  day's  discourses  of  those 
three  momentous  years,  are  but  the  scantiest  fi-agment 
of  the  childhood,  youth,  manhood,  of  the  great  Naza- 
rene.  The  author  of  the  fourth  gospel,  with  a  pardon- 
able exaggeration,  says  that  the  doings  of  Jesus  could 
fill  all  the  books  that  the  world  might  contain.  We 
possess  but  a  slender  portion  of  those  parables  by  which 
He  illustrated  His  teaching,  of  those  discourses  in  which 
He  expounded  the  new  commandment ;  of  that  grave 
irony  with  which  He  exposed  the  pretensions  of  self- 


CHRIST  NO  ABSTRACTION   TO  PAUL.      289 

seeking  teachers;  of  those  indignant  reproaches  ^^th 
which  He  drove  hypocritical  Pharisee,  time-serving 
Herodian,  well-born  or  wealthy  Sadducee,  to  insatiable 
wrath.  These  things,  forsooth,  were  not  done  in  a  cor- 
ner. The  light  was  set  on  a  hill.  They  came  to  Paul, 
as  they  come  to  us,  from  the  narrative  of  eye-witnesses, 
from  the  memory  of  listeners.  He  had  heard  of  them, 
no  doubt,  to  a  far  larger  extent  than  later  generations 
have,  when  he  was  in  Damascus,  in  Arabia,  but  most 
fully  during  the  fifteen  days  of  his  visit  to  Peter.  It 
may  be  that  a  summary  of  what  he  heard  and  told  his 
own  disciples  is,  as  antiquity  believed,  contained  in  the 
gospel  of  Luke.  It  is  not  a  little  remarkable,  however, 
that  he  does  not  allude  in  his  epistles  to  the  discourses, 
miracles,  commandments  of  Christ,  but  only  to  the  su- 
preme facts  of  his  life  and  death.  Whatever  he  may  have 
known  of  those  events  which  are  narrated  in  the  gos- 
pels, he  does  not  make  them  the  basis  of  his  teaching. 

It  would  be,  however,  a  total  misconception  to  be- 
lieve that,  in  Paul's  eyes,  Christ,  the  Son  of  David,  the 
Prophet  of  Galilee,  the  rejected  of  His  people,  the 
Saviour  of  mankind  was,  in  any  sense  whatever,  an 
abstraction.  On  the  contrary.  He  is  always  a  vivid, 
manifest,  real  personality  —  the  very  intensity  of  indi- 
vidual being.  Many  of  the  expressions  used  of  Christ 
were,  of  course,  familiar  to  Jewish  ears  as  formularies 
in  Rabbinical  theology.  Such  were  "  the  Word  of 
God,"  "  the  Son  of  God,"  "  the  power  and  the  wisdom 
of  God."  The  personification  of  those  exalted  quali- 
ties was  natural  enough  to  the  mind  of  antiquity.  But 
13  s 


290  PAUL   OF   TARSUS. 

the  Christ  of  Paul  was  no  incarnation  of  a  Divine  attri- 
bute ;  nor,  conversely,  was  it  the  apotheosis  of  a  Jewish 
Augustus,  in  whom  might  be  supposed  to  reside  the 
loftiest  manifestations  which  the  world  had  ever  seen 
of  moral  goodness  and  intellectual  power.  Paul  always 
preached  Christ  crucified.  It  was  not  easy  to  treat  a 
crucified  person  as  a  glorified,  deified  being,  merely 
from  the  fact  that  he  was-  a  teacher  of  the  highest 
righteousness,  and  had  been  slain  by  those  whom  he 
came  to  instruct  and  benefit.  That  event  is  and  has 
been  too  common.  If  men  worshipped  all  the  teachers 
whom  they  have  sacrificed  to  their  jealousy,  their 
suspicion,  their  weariness,  the  gods  of  the  human 
race  would  be  as  numerous  as  those  of  the  Egyptian 
Olympus. 

Towards  the  Christ  whom  he  preached  Paul  enter- 
tained the  most  ardent  affection.  The  love  of  Christ 
for  man  is  reciprocated  intensely  by  the  love  of  this 
man  towards  Christ.  It  is  the  one  great  and  abiding 
consolation  in  all  the  labors  of  his  energetic  life.  He 
was  not  without  other  joys.  Sorely  tried  and  harassed 
as  he  was,  by  secret  and  open  enemies,  —  by  his  craving 
afler  sympathy,  by  his  enforced  distrust  of  men,  by  his 
unsatisfied  claim  for  fidelity,  —  he  gained,  as  such  ardent 
natures  do,  many  devoted  friends.  He  had  warm  at- 
tachments, and  no  man,  however  enthusiastic,  disin- 
terested, persevering,  wise,  he  may  be,  can  conciliate 
men's  affections,  unless  he  be  genial  and  afiectionate 
himself.  But  there  was  one  friend  who  w\as  closer  than 
any  other  could  be,  who  never  failed  him,  who  w  atched 


PAUL'S  AFFECTION  FOR   CHRIST.  291 

and  strengthened  him  in  his  labors.  And  hence  he  can 
bokily  ask,  after  enumerating  every  influence  which 
can  hinder  human  weakness  from  the  consciousness  of 
the  Divine  presence  —  whether  trouble,  penury,  perse- 
cution, hunger,  want,  danger,  or  the  prospect  of  death 
—  can  separate  him  from  the  love  of  Christ,  can  con- 
fidently, nay,  triumphantly,  assert  that  in  the  face  of 
all  these  hindrances,  he  is  overwhelmingly  victorious  by 
the  love  of  Him,  and  that  no  created  force  or  power 
can  seclude  him  from  this  perpetual  warranty  of  his 
hopes.  The  other  apostles  speak  almost  faintly  of  the 
personality  of  Christ  when  they  are  compared  with 
the  last  of  the  chosen,  the  Benjamin  of  the  new  Israel 
Hence  Paul  is  the  permanent  teacher  of  that  school  of 
Christians,  which  has  dwelt  wdth  such  tenderness  on 
the  humanity  of  Christ,  which  worshijjs  Him  as  God 
because  it  loves  Him  as  man,  which  delights  itself  in 
any  association  which  it  can  frame  in  order  to  designate 
the  inclusion  of  every  aifection  of  which  the  human 
heart  is  capable  in  the  love  of  Jesus.  Paul  is  the  apos- 
tle of  the  Quietists,  of  the  Passionists,  of  those  who 
would  seclude  themselves  from  every  part  of  the  busi- 
ness of  life,  in  order  that  they  may  occuj^y  their  hearts 
with  the  absorbing  contemplation  of  that  glorified,  but 
veritable  humanity.  So  comprehensive  was  the  nature 
of  Paul's  faith,  that  he  —  the  most  active  and  cool 
mind  which  Christianity  has  ever  enlisted  in  its  ser- 
vice —  is,  from  this  tenderest  part  of  his  character,  the 
perpetual  example  of  those  women,  and  those  womanly 
hearted  men,  who  have  sufiered  themselves  to  dwell 


292  PAUL   OF  TARSUS. 

with  such  loyal  intensity  on  the  merits  of  their  Lord, 
who  have  clung  to  him  (the  simile  is  Paul's  own)  with 
much  the  same  trusting  attachment  that  a  pure-hearted 
and  earnest  wife  does  to  the  husband  of  her  love,  and 
jjiide,  and  happiness.  With  such  natures  faith  super- 
sedes a  creed,  for  there  is  no  j^ower  by  which  the  emo- 
tions of  the  heart  —  its  trust,  which  is  the  faith  of  the 
New  Testament  —  can  be  translated  into  a  set,  dog- 
matic avowal,  which  is  too  frequently  the  faith  or  the 
creed  of  later  Christianity. 

And  yet  St.  Paul  has  also  become  the  Apostle  of 
dogmatic  Christianity  throughout  ecclesiastical  history. 
It  is  from  his  writings,  almost  exclusively,  that  contro- 
versialists and  polemics  have  forged  their  weapons.  A 
text  or  two  in  his  epistles  has  been  made  the  basis  of 
some  definition  or  article  of  faith  which  has  agitated  or 
divided  Christianity  from  time  to  time.  The  Gnostics 
acknowledged  no  authority  except  his  catholic  epistles, 
with  the  Gospel  which  he  was  supposed  to  have  dictated 
or  revised ;  while  the  earliest  Christian  Fathers,  who 
contended  with  these  sectaries,  drew  their  rej^lies  from 
these  very  writings.  When  men  entered  into  contro- 
versy about  the  nature  of  Christ,  both  Arian  and  Atha- 
nasian  appealed  to  the  Pauline  epistles  in  support  of 
their  rival  theories.  The  grim  logomachies  of  SalTellius 
and  Eutyches  and  Nestorius  were  defended  and  im- 
pugned from  the  same  authority.  Again,  the  world  of 
Christendom  was  threatened  with  disruption  in  the 
days  of  Pelagius ;  and  the  irrepressible  question  as  to 
the  harmony  of  man's  fi-ee  will,  with  the  divine  scheme 


MISCONSTRUED  AS  A  DOGMATIST.       293 

of  redemption,  was  made  a  forbidden  topic  for  many 
a  century  by  reason  of  the  energy  of  Augustine,  and 
by  virtue  of  a  quotation  or  two  from  St.  Paul's  writ- 
ings. Slowly,  it  is  true,  and  indirectly,  the  Christian 
world  slid  back  into  a  theory  akin  to  that  of  Pelagius ; 
and  Luther,  who  well  knew  that  the  best  way  to  depose 
the  Pope  was  to  prove  him  hei-etical,  insisted  on  the 
doctrine  that  man  is  justified  by  faith,  —  understanding 
by  faith  the  acknowledgment  of  certain  abstract  propo- 
sitions on  the  nature  of  good,  of  Christ,  and  of  man. 

The  Pauline  epistles  were  ransacked,  and  his  words 
subjected  to  an  elaborate  exegesis,  in  order  to  prove 
that  the  Divine  economy  of  Christianity  commanded 
the  universal  establishment  of  an  episcopal  form  of 
church  government.  Nay,  some  of  the  more  eager  and 
imaginative  of  these  controversialists  have  discovered 
the  authority  for  a  liturgy,  and  that  ritualism  which 
deals  in  costume,  in  the  parchments  and  cloak  which 
were  left  at  Troas.  No  words  ever  written  have  been 
studied  more  carefully  and  more  persistently  than  those 
of  St.  Paul,  none  have  been  quoted  more  confidently 
on  behalf  of  foregone  and  repugnant  conclusions.  And 
yet  there  is  no  writer  in  the  latter  part  of  the  New 
Testament  more  fi-ee  from  formal  definitions  than  St. 
Paul  is,  none  the  articles  of  w^hose  creed  are  plainer 
and  fewer.  With  how  strange  an  irony  is  he  —  who 
discouraged  the  Roman  converts,  in  admitting  men  to 
church  membership,  from  entering  on  doubtful  disputa- 
tions—  made  the  chief  authority  for  the  attack  and 
defence  of  theological  subtleties. 


294  PAUL   OF  TABSUS. 

The  fact  is,  no  large-hearted  man  is  ever  intolerant 
of  opinion.  He  may  be  persuaded  that  unless  he  com- 
prehends and  affirms  his  creed  as  emphatically  as  he 
holds  his  faith,  he  is  in  peril.  But,  in  dealing  with 
others,  he  is  certain  to  be  considerate.  There  are  times 
in  which  creeds  lose  much  of  their  hold  on  men's 
minds ;  but  faith,  real  trust  in  God,  manifested  by 
patience,  and  demonstrated  by  earnest  and  self-denying 
love  to  man,  is  stronger  than  at  other  periods  of  eccle- 
siastical history,  when  controversy  has  been  sharp  and 
definitions  have  been  more  exact.  The  gospel  which 
Paul  preached  is  singularly  free  from  anathemas,  even 
when  the  preacher  is  strongly  j^rovoked.  He  does  not 
fly  to  that  armory  of  polemical  strife,  whence  some 
men  have  scattered  imprecations  on  every  thought  and 
action  which  seems  likely  to  challenge  authority,  or 
threaten  usurpation.  He  would  rather  win  than  terrify. 
Even  when  he  is  constrained  to  insist  on  curing  a  grave 
scandal  by  sharp  discipline,  he  is  careful  to  excuse  the 
act  on  the  plea  of  its  absolute  necessity,  and  to  limit 
its  stringency  as  narrowly  as  possible.  He  knew  that 
the  best  way  to  obviate  quarrels  was  to  recognize  differ- 
ences. He  was  well  aware  that  men  may  work  for  a 
common  25urpose,  even  though  their  several  methods 
of  procedure  may  be  so  various  as  to  seem  incongruous, 
and  that,  provided  the  means  be  just  and  honorable, 
identity  of  end  is  a  sufficient  bond  of  unity.  Experi- 
ence proves  that  the  higher  is  the  object  which  men 
proj^ose  to  themselves,  the  easier  is  it  for  them  to  invite 
the  co-operation  of  different  forces.     The  wisdom  of 


FOUR   GREAT  FACTS   OF  HIS    GOSPEL.     295 

the  statesman  consists  in  effecting  a  harmony  of  inter- 
ests, that  of  a  great  religious  reformer  in  enlisting  all 
action  on  behalf  of  one  grand  purpose.  Both  wreck 
their  reputation  when  they  ally  themselves  to  party 
cries,  and  narrow  rules. 

No  writer  in  the  New  Testament,  however,  has 
written  so  much  as  St.  Paul ;  and  none  has  written 
nearly  so  much  about  the  nature  of  Christ.  It  occurred 
to  him  —  in  pursuance  of  his  charge  over  the  churches 
which  he  had  planted  —  to  communicate  by  letter  to 
his  disciples  or  followers,  on  topics  which,  though  they 
seemed  temporary  or  incidental,  have  a  perpetual  inter- 
est because  they  perpetually  recur.  In  these  commu- 
nications he  had  to  deal  broadly  with  the  Christian 
character  and  the  Christian  system,  as  became,  to  use 
an  analogy,  the  great  statesman  of  the  infant  Church. 
Had  he  been  a  personage  of  ordinary  temper  and  char- 
acter, he  would  have  had  a  policy,  as  partisans  always 
have.  But  a  great  statesman  has  no  policy ;  he  accepts 
a  few  leading  principles ;  his  wisdom  being  to  show 
how  these  principles  apply  to  the  various  occasions  of 
human  life.  And,  similarly,  the  leading  rules  of  St. 
Paul's  gospel  were  a  few  inductions,  the  application  of 
which  is  universal.  But  the  acuteness  and  wisdom  of 
the  teacher  are  found  in  the  aj^titude  with  which  he 
points  out  the  universal  character  of  the  position  which 
he  affirms.  In  St.  Paul's  teaching,  this  is  the  redemp- 
tion of  man  by  the  sacrifice  of  Christ.  But  the  four 
facts  contained  in  this  formula  are  of  enormous  extent, 
and  are  exhibited  under  a  multitude  of  phases,  —  re- 


296  PAUL    OF  TARSUS. 

cleraption,  the  nature  of  man,  sacrifice,  the  nature  of 
Christ.  Can  any  conceptions  be  more  vast?  can  any 
interest  be  more  absorbing?  And  need  we  wonder 
that,  in  explaining  these  conceptions,  distinct  as  they 
are  fi-om  each  other,  it  is  impossible  to  gather  any  clear 
notion  of  the  mechanism  by  which  the  harmony  be- 
tween these  facts  and  operations  is  effected,  except  by 
estunating  them  from  every  point  of  view  which  can 
possibly  come  within  our  ken  ?  The  Pauline  interpre- 
tation is  multiform ;  but,  under  no  circumstances  is  it 
presented  as  a  harsh,  dry,  monotonous  analysis,  in  which 
the  fire,  spirit,  life,  of  the  Christian  polity  has  totally 
evaporated.  Paul  has,  perforce,  been  made  the  author- 
ity for  speculative  opinions ;  the  warm-hearted,  impet- 
uous, earnest,  resolute,  loving  man  has  been  treated  as 
though  he  were  a  cold  doctor  of  arid  logomachies,  a 
chief  of  the  schoolmen,  the  convener  and  presiding 
genius  of  an  assembly  or  a  synod.  If  the  Apostle  were 
estimated  by  the  use  which  men  have  made  of  his 
writings,  we  might  say  that  no  man  has  ever  inflicted 
so  much  evil  on  mankind.  But,  in  fact,  if  men  had 
been  content  to  judge  him  by  what  he  says  and  means, 
and  not  by  what  they  wish  to  prove,  Christianity  might 
be  understood  in  all  its  tenderness,  generosity,  attrac- 
tiveness, and  power. 

It  is  said  that  the  earliest  Christian  sectaries, — 
those  Gnostics,  who,  not  having  developed  the  theogony 
of  Valentinus,  merely  busied  themselves  with  the  place 
which  Christ  occupied  among  the  emanations  from  the 
Supreme  Being, — retained  or  reconstructed  those  gos- 


THE   CHILD-CHRIST.  29T 

pels  only  which  narrate  the  facts  of  the  Saviour's  child- 
hood. The  object  of  these  persons  was  to  find  authority 
for  the  theory  which  they  entertained  about  the  nature 
of  Christ.  For  a  different  reason,  there  is  hardly  any 
part  of  the  gospel  narrative  Avhich  awakes  our  sympa- 
thies so  profoundly  as  the  story  of  the  Child-Christ. 
The  gentle  mother,  the  journey  to  Bethlehem,  the  birth 
in  the  stable,  the  cradling  in  a  manger,  the  visit  of  the 
Magi,  the  tlight  into  Egypt,  the  escape  from  Herod, 
the  return  to  Nazareth,  the  obedience  to  Mary  and 
Joseph,  the  visit  to  Jerusalem,  the  scene  with  the  doc- 
tors in  the  Temple,  are  of  the  deepest  interest,  are  the 
vehicle  of  a  thousand  tender  associations,  justify  that 
reverence  for  childhood  which  is  the  most  marked 
characteristic  of  Christian  society.  In  no  part  of  His 
life  is  Christ  more  human  than  in  His  childhood,  in  no 
part  is  the  feeling  of  affection  towards  Him  more 
keenly  felt  than  in  the  recurrence  of  the  season  which 
reminds  us  of  His  birth  and  growing  up.  Christ  has 
granted  the  Shechinah  to  childhood,  has  invested  it 
with  the  white  robe  of  His  holiness.  To  this  St.  Paul 
bears  witness.  They  who  care  little  for  the  circuit  of 
the  Christian  year,  its  times  and  seasons,  its  reminders 
and  its  memories,  are  drawn  perforce  to  the  children's 
festival,  the  time  of  Christmas,  the  record  of  the  birth 
of  Jesus. 

The  fullest  statements  as  to  the  mission  and  work  of 
Christ  are  found  in  the  shorter  epistles.     Thus,  in  that 
to  the  Ephesians,   we  are  told  that   the   mystery  of 
Christ  was  not  known  to  mankind  in  former  genera- 
ls* 


298  PAUL   OF  TARSUS. 

tions  as  it  is  now  revealed  to  His  apostles  and  teachers 
by  the  Spirit;  that  by  the  Gospel  preached  to  them 
the  nations  should  be  reckoned  as  heirs,  incorporated, 
and  made  partners  of  the  promise  contained  in  Christ. 
And  then  St.  Paul  goes  on  to  speak  of  the  undiscovered 
riches  of  Christ,  of  the  work  of  creation  being  done 
through  Christ,  of  the  wisdom  of  God  dwelling  in 
Christ,  of  God  as  the  Father  of  Christ,  of  Christ's 
indwelling  in  His  people,  of  the  glory  which  comes 
from  the  presence  of  Christ  in  His  Church.  Several 
of  these  exjjressions  are  indeed  familiar  phrases  of 
Jewish  theology,  and  would  be  perfectly  intelligible 
to  those  who  are  acquainted  with  the  language  of  the 
Jewish  doctors;  but  together  they  form  a  weight  of 
significant  epithets,  each  of  which  illustrates  some  rela- 
tion in  which  the  Founder  of  Christianity  is  supposed 
to  stand  to  His  people,  and  all  by  reason  of  the  relation 
in  which  Christ  Himself  stands  to  God. 

The  Epistle  to  the  Colossians  contains  even  fuller 
statements  on  this  subject.  The  Colossians  do  not 
seem  to  have  been  the  converts  of  St.  Paul,  if  we  take 
the  words,  "  those  who  have  not  seen  my  face  in  the 
flesh,"  as  applying  to  the  persons  who  are  to  receive 
the  letter.  But  here  Paul  speaks  of  God  as  One  "  who 
has  saved  us  from  the  control  of  darkness,  and  trans- 
ferred us  to  the  kingdom  of  the  Son  of  His  love,  in 
whom,  and  by  whose  blood,  we  get  redemption  — 
namely,  the  remission  of  sins ;  who  is  the  image  of  the 
invisible  God,  the  first-born  of  every  creation,  since  in 
Him   are   all  things  created  —  things  in  heaven  and 


EIS   EXALTATION  OF  CHRIST.  299 

earth,  things  visible  and  invisible  —  be  they  thrones  or 
lordships,  governments  or  powers;  all  of  them  have 
their  creation  by  Him  and  for  Him ;  He  is  before  every 
thing,  and  all  things  exist  in  Him  ;  and  He  is  the  Head 
of  the  body  of  the  Church ;  He  is  the  beginning,  the 
First-born  from  the  dead,  that  He  may  be  chief  in  all 
things,  because  all  the  fulness "  (a  word  which  after- 
wards was  used  in  a  strange  significance)  "  was  con- 
tent to  dwell  in  Him,  and  by  it  to  conciliate  every  thing 
to  Himself,  who  brought  about  peace  by  the  blood  of 
His  cross,  by  Himself,  to  whatever  is  on  earth  and 
in  heaven.  And  you,"  he  adds,  "  who  were  once  alien- 
ated, and  foes  to  Him  in  mind  by  wicked  deeds.  He 
hath  now  conciliated  in  the  body  of  His  flesh,  by  His 
death,  so  as  to  bring  you  before  Him  holy,  spotless,  and 
irreproachable,  provided  ye  remain  firmly  founded  and 
settled  in  your  trust,  and  are  not  distracted  from  the 
hope  of  the  Gospel  which  you  have  received  —  a 
Gospel  which  is  proclaimed  in  every  creation  under 
heaven,  and  of  which  I,  Paul,  am  a  servant." 

Much,  again,  of  this  ascription  of  attributes  to  the 
person  of  Christ,  is  identical  with  that  which  the  He- 
brew teachers  recognized  in  the  Word.  But  all  that 
portion  of  the  Apostle's  exposition  which  transfers  the 
power  of  the  Word  to  the  work  of  human  redemption, 
and  which  makes  the  agency  of  that  redemption  to  con- 
sist in  the  death  of  Christ,  is  distinctively  Christian,  and 
is  characteristic  of  that  Gospel  which  Paul  had  preached 
throughout  his  life. 

A  little   further   on   in   the  same  epistle,  St.  Paul 


300  PAUL    OF   TARSUS. 

returns  again  to  the  declaration  of  the  effects  which 
were  secured  by  the  sacrifice  of  Christ.  He  is  warning 
these  Colossians  against  the  figments  of  a  vain  and 
treacherous  philosophy,  —  against  the  traditions  of 
human  science,  —  against  the  materialism  of  physical 
laws.  To  these  unsatisfying  pretensions  he  opposes 
Christ.  "  He  is  the  incarnate  habitation  of  the  fulness 
of  Divinity,  and  ye  are  filled  by  Him,  derivatively.  He 
is  the  head  of  all  authority  and  rule;  He  has  given  you 
a  spiritual  circumcision,  —  that  of  Christ,  —  by  strip- 
ping off  the  body  of  fleshly  sin.  You  are  buried  with 
Him  in  the  baptism,  and  by  His  means  ye  are  awakened 
up  through  trust  in  the  work  of  God  which  raised  Him 
fi'om  the  dead.  Once  ye  were  dead  in  sins,  which  are 
the  uncircumcision  of  your  flesh,  and  now,  having  made 
you  the  gift  of  pardon  from  your  sins,  God  is  raising 
you  to  life  in  Him."  He  hath  blotted  out  that  which 
was  written  against  us,  which  stood  in  our  way  —  the 
letter  of  the  law  —  has  taken  it  out  of  our  path,  has 
nailed  it  to  the  cross  of  His  Son,  has  stripped  of  their 
authority  other  masters  and  other  rulers,  and  has  pub- 
licly exhibited  them  "when  (as  a  Roman  general  did 
the  cajDtured  kings  and  vanquished  commanders  in  the 
procession  of  victory)  He  celebrates  His  triumph  over 
them  in  the  victory  of  the  cross."  Here,  again,  in  a 
passage  of  dithyrambic  exultation,  the  Apostle  starts 
from  the  same  topic  —  the  fact  that  Christ  represents 
the  fullest  incarnation  of  God  which  the  theosophy  of 
his  age  allowed,  and  thence  argues  to  the  prodigious 
effects  which  the  sacrifice  of  so  glorious  a  personage 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  CERISTOLOGY.         301 

must  have  worked  for  the  regeneration  and  exaltation 
of  humanity,  for  its  freedom  from  sin,  for  its  reconcilia- 
tion with  God,  for  its  introduction  to  a  new,  a  final,  a 
holy  covenant. 

It  is  impossible  to  compare  these  passages  from  the 
two  epistles  —  written,  it  would  appear,  at  the  same 
time,  and  that  late  in  St.  Paul's  life  —  with  those  which 
are  to  be  found  in  such  writings  as  the  epistles  to  the 
Thessalonians,  without  discovering  a  great  develop- 
ment in  what  we  may  call  Christology.  The  epistles 
to  the  Thessalonians  are  the  earliest  parts  of  the  New 
Testament.  St.  Paul  had  not  yet  been  driven  into  an 
open  rupture  with  Judaism.  He  still  commends,  among 
Gentiles,  the  imitation  of  the  Jewish  churches.  The 
expectation  of  a  speedy  appearance  of  Christ  was  at 
its  height,  and  men  were  looking  forward,  with  fever- 
ish anxiety,  to  that  coming  in  the  clouds  of  heaven 
which  had  been  predicted  and  promised.  It  is  true 
that  the  Apostle  invokes,  as  is  his  wont,  the  grace  and 
peace  of  God  and  Christ  on  his  converts,  at  the  com- 
mencement of  the  first  epistle,  and  utters  the  same 
blessing  at  the  conclusion  of  each.  But  there  is  little 
or  no  trace  of  that  mystical  force  which  is  ascribed  to 
the  death  of  Christ  in  the  passages  just  commented 
on.  We  read  of  the  hope  of  Christ,  of  the  imitation 
of  Him,  of  His  endurance,  of  His  death  at  the  hands 
of  His  people,  of  His  resurrection  and  its  pledge,  of 
His  presence,  of  His  Gospel,  of  the  commands  which 
He  communicated,  of  the  salvation  effected  by  Him, 
of  His   speedy  advent.     It  may  be   that  the  larger 


302  PAUL    OF  TARSUS. 

theory  of  His  constructive  office,  in  the  regeneration 
of  Humanity,  was  present  to  the  Apostle's  mind,  but 
it  is  not  expressed.  There  were,  indeed,  abundant 
reasons  why  that  which  was  not  revealed  in  the  earlier, 
should  be  insisted  on  in  the  later  epistle.  As  a  relig- 
ion, Christianity  was  incomplete,  until  it  not  only 
guided  the  life,  but  satisfied  the  needs  of  the  soul, 
in  its  search  after  the  means  of  union  with  God.  We 
do  not  know,  and  never  shall  know,  what  were  the 
struggles  of  men  after  a  theology  in  the  early  days  of 
Christendom.  We  cannot  see  the  thick  of  the  fight, 
but  we  know  something  about  the  forces  which  stood 
in  most  marked  antagonism  to  each  other,  and  yet 
with  some  similarity  of  equipment.  The  Christology 
of  St.  Paul  is  before  us,  and  so  is  the  theosophy-of  the 
Gnostics. 

The  purpose  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans  is  to 
show,  though  in  a  less  marked  manner  than  is  done  in 
the  letter  to  the  Galatians,  that  the  Jewish  ritual  and 
ordinances  are  superseded  by  the  revelation  of  Chris- 
tianity. Hence  the  Apostle  insists  on  the  effects  which 
have  been  induced  by  the  sacrifice  of  Christ,  in  the 
reconciliation  of  man  to  God,  and  on  the  guai'antee 
which  the  resurrection  of  Christ  aflTords  that  this  recon- 
ciliation is  complete.  Here,  then,  Christ  is  the  perfect 
man,  who  stands  in  contrast  to  Adam ;  the  First-born 
among  many  brethren ;  the  Advocate  of  man  in  the 
presence  of  God ;  the  Lord  of  dead  and  living ;  the 
Judge  of  men ;  the  Minister  of  circumcision,  whose 
mission  it  was   to  confirm  the  23romise  made   to  the 


CHRIST  IN  CORINTHIAN  EPISTLE.  303 

Fathers ;  the  descendant  of  David  according  to  the 
flesh,  but  the  Son  of  God  in  power ;  by  whom  we  are 
heirs  of  God,  fellow-heirs  with  Christ ;  who,  if  we  suf- 
fer with  Him,  may  be  glorified  with  Him  in  the  end. 
He  is  exalted  and  glorified,  because  He  has  been 
humbled,  betrayed,  put  to  death ;  He  reigns  over  all, 
because  he  has  undergone,  for  man's  sake,  the  lot  of  a 
servant.  He  is  the  perfect  Tyj^e  of  humanity,  in  whom 
converges  every  grace,  power,  gift,  function,  which  may 
be  needed  for  the  grand  purpose  of  His  coming,  —  that 
of  recovering  the  race  of  man,  of  aiding  the  suffering 
and  groaning  creation-  in  gaining  that  which  it  expects 
so  earnestly,  —  the  redemption  of  the  body,  the  adop- 
tion into  son  ship,  which  even  the  first-fi'uits  of  the 
Spirit  need. 

In  the  First  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians,  there  is  a 
passage  which  is  full  of  beauty,  tenderness,  and  hope, 
and  has  thereupon  been  selected  as  a  most  consolatory 
exhortation  to  those  who  are  saddened  by  the  bereave- 
ment of  their  drearest  and  best  beloved.  In  the  chap- 
ter which  is  read  at  the  Anglican  burial  service,  occurs 
a  remarkable  statement  as  to  the  place  of  Christ  in  tlip 
Divine  economy.  Beginning  fi'om  the  position  laid 
down  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  that  death  is  the 
lot  of  the  sons  of  Adam,  life  the  gift  of  Christ's  resur- 
rection, the  Apostle  proceeds  to  say  that  this  re-grant 
of  life  is  exhibited  in  a  definite  order,  —  that  the  first- 
fruit  of  the  great  harvest  is  Christ ;  next,  those  who, 
at  the  sudden  presence  of  Christ,  are  His.  And  then, 
St.  Paul  continues,  "  the  end  will   come.     Christ  Tvdll 


304  PAUL    OF   TARSUS. 

then  deliver  up  the  kingdom  to  God  and  the  Father,  in 
order  that  He  may  bring  to  an  end  all  rule,  authority, 
and  power.  Christ  must  reign  till  He  hath  put  all 
enemies  under  His  feet ;  the  last  enemy  who  is  to  be 
brought  to  an  end  being  death.  God, "  says  the  Apos- 
tle, quoting  the  words  of  the  Psalmist,  when  he  speaks 
of  the  power  conferred  on  man, "  has  put  all  things 
under  His  feet."  "But,"  he  adds,  "the  words,  'He 
hath  put  all  things  under  him,'  imply  that  the  Being 
who  has  granted  this  authority  is  external  and  superior 
to  such  a  dispensation ;  and  that,  therefore,  when  this 
subjugation  is  finally  accomplished,  the  Son  Himself 
must  be  subject  to  the  God  from  whom  this  authority  is 
derived,  that  God  may  be  supreme  in  every  thing. "  It 
is  impossible  to  explain  away  these  unambiguous  words, 
which  distinctly  express  the  Apostle's  conviction  that 
the  present  relation  of  Christ  to  the  Father,  and  to  the 
creation  which  He  has  saved,  are  determined  by  the 
cessation  of  the  visible  creation,  by  the  second  coming 
of  Christ.  This  event,  as  we  have  ah-eady  seen,  was 
perpetually  expected  by  the  believers  in  the  Apostolic 
age,  and  is  nowhere  declared  to  be  more  immediate 
than  in  this  very  passage.  "  I  tell  you,"  he  says,  "  a 
mystery.  We  shall  not  all  die,  but  we  shall  all  be  trans- 
formed." The  existing  generation  is  to  see  the  greater 
advent,  and,  with  it,  the  reabsorption  of  all  imparted 
power  into  the  unity  of  God.  In  the  Pauline  Chris- 
tology,  the  perfection  of  Christ's  Being  is  achieved  by 
the  death  on  the  cross.  "  He  puts  on  the  figure  of  a 
slave,  exists  in  the  likeness  of  man  and  in  the  fashion 


HIS    VIVID   GONCEPTTON  OF  CHRIST.       305 

of  a  man,  humbles  Himself,  subjects  Himself  to  death, 
the  death  of  the  cross ;  and  is  therefore  highly  exalted 
by  God,  is  gifted  with  a  name  above  every  name,  is  the 
object  of  reverence  to  every  thing  in  heaven,  earth,  and 
hell,  and  is  confessed  to  be  Lord  by  every  tongue,  to 
the  glory  of  God  the  Father."  The  completion  of  His 
office  is  contained  in  His  second  coming,  in  His  judg- 
ment, and  in  the  final  and  eternal  reconciliation  of  man 
to  God.  Then  His  work  is  done,  —  His  mission  is  a 
glorious  memory,  —  He  is  again  the  perfection  of  hu- 
manity, the  first-born  of  all  creation,  the  first-born 
among  many  brethren.  Such  a  Christology  differs 
largely  from  that  of  the  Nicene  doctors.  It  is  bounded 
by  the  period  which  lies  between  the  death  of  Christ, 
or  rather  His  resurrection,  and  that  consummation  of 
all  things  which  the  Apostle  thought  so  near. 

But,  though  the  Christology  of  Paul  contained  none 
of  the  exact  definitions  which  the  conflicts  of  later 
theology  developed,  nothing,  on  the  other  hand,  which 
we  can  conceive,  is  so  intense  to  the  Apostle  as  the 
personality  of  Him  whom  he  saw  on  the  road  to 
Damascus,  and  saw  but  once.  None  even  of  tliose 
who  had  passed  the  three  years  in  His  company, 
had  so  vivid,  so  permanent  an  apprehension  of  Christ 
as  Paul  had.  The  Master,  Saviour,  Redeemer,  Ad- 
vocate, Judge,  is  present  to  him  in  every  act,  in 
every  relation  of  life.  Christ,  a  real,  living  Person, 
is  the  beginning  and  end  of  his  thoughts,  is  ever  in 
his  heart,  always  on  his  lips.  He  never  loses  sight  of 
the  vision.     It  carries  him  —  how,  he  knows  not  —  to 

T 


306      "  PAUL    OF   TARSUS. 

heaven,  and  fills  his  mind  mth  Divine  voices,  with 
words  which,  like  the  name  of  the  Almighty,  were 
incommunicable.  In  all  his  bodily  weakness,  in  all  the 
trials  of  his  life,  he  is  triumphant,  a  conqueror  through 
Him  who  strengthened  him.  He  is  never  alone,  he 
can  never  be  separated  from  the  love  of  Christ.  Christ 
has  literally  come  to  him,  and  taken  up  his  abode  with 
him.  He  has  the  mind  of  Christ,  bears  the  marks  of 
Christ  on  his  body,  fills  up  what  is  left  of  His  afflic- 
tions, knows  and  exults  over  the  deep,  the  unsearch- 
able riches  of  Him  whose  servant,  minister,  apostle  he 
is.  The  fourth  gospel  tells  us  of  one  whom  Jesus  loved. 
The  Pauline  epistles  depict  us  a  man  who  loved  Jesus, 
with  a  perfect,  all-absorbing,  unremitting  devotion. 
Other  men  have  served  Him,  worshipped  Him.  Paul 
dedicated  his  whole  nature  to  the  Person  whom  he 
once  persecuted,  but  now  loved  with  every  power  of  a 
large  heart,  a  vigorous  will,  and  an  imaginative  mind. 
However  long  we  may  search  into  the  history  of  relig- 
ious emotions,  we  shall  find  no  parallel  to  this  man's 
concentrated  love  for  Christ.  He  combines  what  is 
seen  or  told  to  us  in  the  characters  of  Peter,  Mary 
Magdalene,  John  —  ardent  zeal,  loving  adoration,  rapt 
contemplation.  To  such  a  person,  the  definition  of 
that  which  is  beloved  would  be  unnatural  and  even 
odious.  Wiio  attempts  to  analyze  his  own  heart,  when 
it  is  occupied  by  one  engrossing  afiection  ? 

In  degree,  this  feeling  towards  Christ  was  shared 
by  the  early  Christians.  The  celebrated  letter  of  Pliny 
to  Trajan  is  evidence  of  its  prevalence  in  Bithynia;  the 


FADING    OF  MEMORIES   OF  CHRIST.         307 

contemptuous  sneers  of  Lucian  are  proof  tliat  it  lasted 
in  Syria  and  Greece.  Gradually,  however,  as  the  per- 
sonal memories  of  Christ  faded  away,  and  the  survivors 
of  the  Apostolic  age  became  fewer  and  fewer  —  as  the 
expectation  of  His  coming  grew  more  distant  by  delay, 
and  men  even  murmured  at  the  slackness  of  His 
promise  —  as  the  watching  for  His  appearance  was  su- 
2Jerseded  by  the  dream  of  Chiliasm  —  as  the  thousand 
years  of  the  Petrine  Epistle,  and  of  the  Apocalyptic 
vision,  w^ere  developed  into  the  belief  in  a  visible  reign 
of  the  glorified  Son  over  an  impregnable  Paradise  on 
earth,  into  which  the  faithful  should  be  gathered, — 
Christ  ceased  to  be  a  person,  a  man,  and  became  a 
nature,  an  hypostasis,  a  debate,  a  disputation.  The 
love  of  Christ  was  ultimately  strangled  by  the  growth 
of  opinion.  The  faith  of  the  Apostolic  age — origin- 
ally trust  in  a  living,  present,  energetic  power,  which 
was  able  to  save  to  the  uttermost  all  who  came  to  God 
through  Him,  as  the  author  of  the  Epistle  to  the 
Hebrews  declares  —  became  the  acceptance  of  a  series 
of  abstract  propositions,  not  one  of  which  touched  the 
heart,  or  strengthened  the  will.  But  Christianity  is 
always  compelled  to  seek  for  its  sanctions  in  something 
more  impulsive  than  a  series  of  definitions ;  perpetually 
revives  itself  by  tearing  to  pieces,  or  breaking  through 
the  cobwebs  of  a  subtle  logic ;  and  always  puts  before 
the  believer's  mind  a  personal  Christ,  a  perfect  Man,  a 
Being  to  love,  to  live  for,  to  labor  for,  to  die  for,  to 
hope  in.  The  humanity  of  Christ  makes  martyrs; 
disputes  about  the  nature   of  His  divinity  have  bred 


308  PAUL    OF   TARSUS. 

schoolmen  and  inquisitors.  The  teaching  of  •  Chris- 
tianity always  encounters  the  typical  Jew  and  the 
typical  Greek ;  —  the  one,  being  occupied  by  the  dream 
of  an  exact  system,  finds  impassioned  faith  a  stum- 
bling-block, a  wild  enthusiasm ;  the  other,  wrapt  up  in 
the  invuluerable  armor  of  his  own  intelligence,  moral- 
izes on  the  weakness  of  humanity,  its  liability  to  im- 
pulse, its  uncritical  acquiescence  in  sentiment  and 
emotion.  But,  when  once  the  religious  sense  is  thor- 
oughly aroused,  these  critics  cavil  in  vain.  The  love 
for  the  perfect  man,  Christ  Jesus  —  whose  wisdom, 
beneficence,  self-sacrifice,  are  so  old,  and  yet  so  new ; 
so  wonderful,  and  yet  so  familiar;  so  wide  in  their 
effects,  and  yet  so  intensely  personal  in  their  appeal  to 
individual  sympathy  —  again  occupies  the  heart  of 
man,  and  gains  its  fervid  allegiance.  In  brief,  Avhen- 
ever  Christianity  is  reconstructed,  and  the  mind  of 
Christ  reigns  in  man,  man  reverts  to  the  pattern  of  the 
Apostolic  age,  exhibits  an  intense  affection  for  the 
humanity  of  Christ,  and  inaugurates  a  fresh  epoch  of 
charity  towards  his  fellows.  But,  as  soon  as  dogma- 
tism reasserts  itself,  Christ  is  lost  in  a  maze  of 
definitions,  and  the  preacher  of  the  Gospel  is  tempted 
to  become  a  persecutor  and  injurious. 

The  reader  will  not,  of  course,  conclude  that  this 
attempt  at  expounding  the  Pauline  Christology  intends 
to  indicate  a  judgment  on  any  theological  hypothesis 
as  to  the  Nature  of  Christ.  The  utmost  inference 
which  it  is  intended  to  make  is,  that  the  popular  belief 
in  that  which  since  the  days  of  the  Nicene  Fathers 


CHRIST  IN  THE  HEBREWS  EPISTLE.     809 

has  been  accounted  orthodox,  finds  no  positive  proof 
in  the  Pauline  epistles,  but  rather,  to  judge  from  the 
important  passage  already  quoted  from  the  First 
Epistle  to  the  Corinthians,  is  repugnant  to  this 
Apostle's  conception  of  Christ's  place  in  the  Divine 
economy.  It  is  possible  that,  had  Paul  been  ques- 
tioned as  to  the  Nature  of  Christ,  he  would  have 
answered  according  to  the  Nicene  symbol,  and  that 
he  might  not  have  considered  the  phraseology  of  this 
creed  a  mass  of  those  dialectical  subtleties  which  he 
advises  the  Roman  Christians  to  avoid.  It  is  idle  to 
inquire  what  would  have  been  the  attitude  of  the 
Apostle  towards  the  heresiarchs  of  the  third  and  fourth 
centuries,  had  their  opinions  been  matured  in  the 
earliest  age  of  Christianity,  just  as  it  is  superfluous  to 
ask  what  he  would  have  recommended  as  a  permanent 
form  of  church  government,  had  he  been  appealed  to 
by  the  first  advocates  of  the  Roman  primacy,  or  by 
the  opponents  of  ecclesiastical  centralization. 

Nor  can  it  be  denied  that  the  author  of  the  Epistle 
to  the  Hebrews,  —  who  was  certainly  not  St.  Paul, 
whoever  else  he  may  have  been,  —  makes  far  more 
positive  declarations  as  to  the  Nature  of  Christ  than 
Paul  does.  The  first  chapter  of  this  epistle  indicates 
a  development  in  the  history  of  Christology  which 
goes  beyond  the  Pauline  utterances.  It  is  true  that, 
in  the  course  of  the  argument,  the  humanity  of  the 
Saviour  is  made  the  basis  of  the  parallel  between 
Him  and  the  chief  of  a  superseded  ceremonial;  the 
eternal  priesthood  having  been,  in  the  language  of  the 


310  PAUL    OF  TARSUS. 

writer,  conferred  on  Christ  by  the  initiative  of  God. 
In  other  particulars,  the  epistle  ascribes  to  Christ  those 
qualities  and  attributes  which  the  philosophers  of  the 
Alexandrian  Jewry  assigned  to  the  Messiah  of  their 
hope.  But  the  fullest  witness  to  the  Nicene  doctrine 
is  given  by  the  author  of  the  Apocalypse  and  of  the 
fourth  gospel.  It  was  not,  then,  without  reason  that 
the  emperor  Julian  was,  as  we  are  told,  accustomed  to 
say,  that  the  Divinity  of  Christ  was  no  tenet  of  the 
three  Evangelists,  or  of  Paul;  but  of  John,  —  the  John, 
who  is  the  reputed  author  of  the  fourth  gospel  and  the 
Apocalypse ;  for  the  epistles  ascribed  to  this  aj^ostle 
do  not  go  beyond  the  Pauline  doctrine. 

It  is  possible  that  the  doctrine  of  the  Nicene  Fathers 
is  nothing  more  than  a  necessary  inference  from  the 
position  which  the  earliest  tochers  of  Christianity 
assigned  to  the  great  Founder  of  their  faith.  The 
mission  of  Christ  was  to  save  a  world,  and  this 
function  could  not  be  fulfilled  by  any  but  one  person. 
In  view  of  this  gi-eat  office,  it  was  natural,  perhaps 
necessary,  to  accumulate  on  His  person  the  attributes 
of  the  Almighty.  As  men  came  more  and  more  to 
feel  and  believe  that  the  salvation  of  each  man  was  a 
mystery  of  miraculous  power,  they  were  more  and 
more  led  to  see  that  He  who  was  gifted  with  tliis 
exalted  mediation  was  in  the  counsels  of  the  Father 
from  the  beginning,  and  that  He  shared  for  ever  in 
the  majesty  and  power  of  the  Eternal.  To  lower  His 
Nature  was  to  disparage  His  work.  To  exalt  it  was 
to  confess  the  unworthiness  of  man,  and  the  mighty 


SPECIAL   FACTS   OF  HIS   GOSPEL.  311 

mercy  of  God.  The  harmony  of  the  human  and  the 
Divine  nature  occupied,  as  is  well  known,  the  keenest 
intelligence  of  the  Eastern  world,  then  the  centre  of 
dialectical  skill  and  philosophical  speculation.  The 
result  is  to  be  found  in  those  creeds  which  were  gradu- 
ally elaborated  during  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries, 
and  notably  by  the  termination  of  the  last  great  theo- 
losjical  controversy  —  that  in  which  the  teachino;  of 
Pelagius  was  formally  condemned,  and  the  Nature  of 
Christ  was  formally  and  precisely,  defined.  It  is  prob- 
able that  soon  after  this,  the  last  of  the  creeds  —  that, 
namely,  which  has  been  ascribed  to  Athanasius  —  was 
constructed. 

The  death  and  resurrection  of  Christ  were  the 
special  facts  on  which  St.  Paul  insisted.  The  former 
was  not  of  course  disputed,  though,  after  a  time,  a 
strange  sect  pretended  that  a  phantom  was  crucified, 
the  true  Christ  having  been  mysteriously  conveyed 
away.  But  the  resurrection  was  no  novel  utterance 
from  the  mouth  of  Paul,  at  least  to  the  Jews,  —  who 
generally  accepted  the  doctrine  of  a  corporeal  resurrec- 
tion. It  was  a  characteristic  tenet  of  the  Pharisees; 
and  the  story  of  St.  Paul  having  created  a  diversion  in 
his  own  favor,  by  affirming  that  he  was  charged  with 
maintaining  the  resurrection  of  the  dead,  is  completely 
in  accordance  with  Avhat  we  know  of  the  dissensions 
which  prevailed  on  this  topic  among  the  Jews.  The 
rationalists  denied  and  ridiculed,  the  mystics  affirmed 
the  doctrine.  On  the  other  hand,  the  heathen  world 
thought,  with  Festus,  that  a  man  who  held  the  resur- 


312  PAUL   OF   TARSUS. 

rection  of  the  dead  to  be  a  possibility  was  a  madman. 
The  mass  of  the  peojDle  believed  in  a  world  of  spirits, 
—  as  men  have  almost  invariably  believed.  Much  of 
the  familiar  theology  of  the  ancient  world  was  based 
on  spirit-worship.  The  Penates  of  the  Roman  house- 
hold appear  to  have  represented  the  deceased  ances- 
tors of  the  family.  The  early  civilization  of  Rome 
gathered  from  the  mysterious  Etruscan  race  —  who 
were,  j^robably,  a  fragment  of  that  great  family  which 
throve  in  ancient  Egypt,  and  still  exists  in  Eastern 
Asia  —  the  characteristic  tenet  of  reverence  for  the 
spirits  of  departed  relatives.  But  this  worship  had 
become  an  archaism  in  the  Christian  era.  The  gentry 
of  the  Roman  empire  accepted  that  notion  of  a  com- 
fortless immortality  which  is  stated  in  the  Odyssey  in 
its  naked  gloominess,  and  which  is  pictured  in  the 
phrase,  "  Let  us  eat  and  drink,  for  to-morrow  we  die." 
The  lowest  condition  of  life  was  better  than  the  best 
hopes  of  the  dead.  So  Achilles,  the  type  of  Greek 
heroism,  is  made  to  think.  The  last  representative  of 
Etruscan  nobility,  Maecenas  —  the  friend  and  minister 
of  Augustus;  the  patron  of  art,  learning,  poetry  — 
shuddered  at  the  change  from  life  to  death,  and  wel- 
comed any  suffering  if  he  were  only  left  with  the  boon 
of  existence.  This  dread  is  not  fear  of  annihilation, 
of  absorption  into  a  universal  essence.  It  is  a  belief 
that  sensation  survives  death,  and  that  the  departed 
soul  exchanges  for  the  gladness,  the  light,  the  warmth, 
the  energy  of  corporeal  existence,  a  sad,  dark,  cold, 
motiveless  being,  in  which  the  memories  of  departed 


HIS  IDEAS   OF  RESURRECTION.  313 

and  irrecoverable  enjoyments  remain,  to  curse  rather 
than  to  console.  This  exchange  of  death  for  life  — 
fi'om  the  point  of  view  taken  by  the  Epicurean  who 
believed  in  the  soul's  immortality  —  has  never  been 
described  with  such  precision  as  by  Shaksjieare,  in 
the  words  put  into  the  mouth  of  Claudio,  — 

"  Ay,  but  to  die,  and  go  we  know  not  where  ; 
To  lie  in  cold  obstruction  and  to  rot ; 
This  sensible  warm  motion  to  become 
A  kneaded  clod  ;  and  the  delighted  spirit 
To  bathe  in  fiery  floods,  or  to  reside 
In  thrilling  regions  of  thick-ribbed  ice  ; 
To  be  imprisoned  in  the  viewless  winds, 
And  blown  with  restless  violence  round  about 
The  pendent  world ;  or  to  be  worse  than  worst 
Of  those,  that  lawless  and  incertain  thought 
Imagine  howling :  'tis  too  horrible  ! 
The  weariest  and  most  loathed  worldly  life 
That  age,  ache,  penury,  and  imprisonment 
Can  lay  on  nature,  is  a  paradise 
To  what  we  fear  of  death." 

The  resurrection  of  Christ  was,  according  to  St. 
Paul,  the  earnest  of  a  general  resurrection.  Whether 
he  held  that  they  who  had  failed  to  reach  the  Gospel  of 
the  Divine  mercy,  would  partake  of  the  resurrection 
which  Christ  had  secured  for  them  who  were  His  at 
His  coming  is  not  clear.  In  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles, 
he  is  represented  as  holding  the  view  of  a  universal 
resurrection  in  his  address  to  Felix,  in  which  just  and 
unjust  shall  appear  before  the  Judge.  But,  in  the 
epistles,  the  hopes  of  the  resurrection  are  generally 
limited  to  them  who  believe,  though  he  speaks  in  the 
14 


314  PAUL   OF  TABS  US. 

Second  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians,  of  all  appearing 
before  the  judgment-seat  of  Christ,  each  to  receive 
good  or  evil  according  to  what  he  hath  done  in  the 
body.  But,  as  has  been  observed  before,  the  theocracy 
of  St.  Paul  does  not  concern  itself  so  much  with  those 
who  are  rejected  as  unworthy  of  salvation,  or  with  the 
destiny  of  those  who  refuse  to  accept  the  Gospel,  as  it 
does  with  the  hopes  and  the  blessings  of  those  who 
receive  and  keep  it.  It  is  enough  that  a  glorious 
immortality  is  j^romised  to  them  who  love  Christ. 
There  was  no  interest  in  curiously  investigating  the 
case  of  the  wicked  and  unbelieving. 

To  this  resurrection  of  the  just,  Paul  clings  with 
intense  earnestness  and  confidence.  Take  it  away,  and 
all  the  purpose  of  his  life  is  gone,  every  sacrifice  which 
he  has  made  is  valueless,  the  redemption  of  man  has 
not  been  achieved,  they  Avho  have  fallen  asleep  in 
Christ  are  perished.  They  who  have  lived  in  this 
hope  are  the  most  pitiable  of  all  men  ;  the  only  alterna- 
tive in  this  blank  despair  is  a  life  of  epicurean  enjoy- 
ment. And  this  expectation  of  a  bright  future,  an 
eternal  existence  of  rest  and  joy,  is  heightened  by 
the  conviction  that  he  will  live  with  the  object  of  his 
unwearied  love,  the  glorified  man  Christ  Jesus.  In 
some  undefined  place,  in  the  third  heaven,  at  the  right 
hand  of  God,  in  some  house  not  made  with  hands,  but 
eternal  in  the  heavens,  He,  the  Lord  Christ  is;  and 
there  His  disciples.  His  new  creation,  will  meet  Him 
and  dwell  with  Him,  what  time  this  earthly  habitation 
—  this    mere    tent   of   passing   life  —  is   dissolved    or 


PROOF  BT  NATURAL  ANALOGIES.  315 

destroyed.  It  is  in  the  air,  the  heavens,  —  the  symbols 
of  light  and  brightness,  and  purity.  But  these  places 
are  a  figure,  as  the  resurrection  is  a  mystery,  the  repre- 
sentative of  an  unexpounded  future,  of  a  new  Jerusa- 
lem, the  eternal  home  of  the  true  and  just.  As  yet, 
however,  though  we  cannot  see  Him  with  mortal  eyes, 
this  Jesus,  the  Saviour  and  the  Friend,  is  present 
everywhere.  They  put  Him  on ;  He  dwells  with  them. 
Hereafter  the  union  will  be  closer,  the  presence  j^er- 
petual,  the  vision  one  of  inexpressible  glory. 

The  Apostle  anticij^ates  the  retort  of  those  who 
object  to  him",  and  who  may  raise  the  question, — How 
are  the  dead  raised,  and  in  what  body  do  they  come? 
In  the  visible  world  there  are  diversities  of  existence, 
and  the  analogy  holds  in  its  invisible  or  transcendental 
counterpart.  And  then  he  compares  the  resurrection 
to  the  growth  of  the  plant  from  the  seed,  in  language 
well  known  to  every  one,  the  figure  being  worked  out 
with  great  peetical  beauty.  Such  comparisons  between 
physical  development  and  growth,  and  the  resurrection 
of  the  body,  were  instituted  by  the  Jewish  doctors. 
Thus  the  Gemara  contains  a  conversation  between 
Gamaliel  and  Caesar  —  by  whom  is  probably  meant 
Augustus  —  in  which  the  great  Rabbi  is  represented 
as  victoriously  refuting  the  emperor's  scepticism,  and 
proving  that  the  resurrection  of  the  body,  wonderful 
though  it  be,  is  paralleled  by  the  perpetual  occurrence 
of  other  and  greater  wonders  in  the  ordinary  process 
of  physical  generation. 

To  accept  the  doctrine  of  the  resurrection,  and  to 


316  PAUL   OF  TARSUS. 

extend  it  to  the  race  of  man,  or  at  best  to  the  faithfnl, 
was  a  difficult  problem  to  the  Gentile  mind.  That 
audience  at  Athens  which  listened  with  attention  to 
the  Apostle  while  he  discoursed  of  the  spiritual  Nature 
of  the  Almighty,  the  unity  of  the  human  race,  the 
providence  of  God,  the  search  which  man  must  needs 
make  after  Him,  the  coming  judgment,  and  the  person 
of  the  Judge,  were  startled  into  contemj^t  when  they 
heard  him  speak  of  the  resurrection  of  the  dead.  But 
the  doctrine,  once  accepted,  was  full  of  profound  con- 
solations. They  who  believed  this  tenet  were  after- 
wards afraid  of  nothing.  Assured  of  a  real,  a  conscious 
eternity  of  unimaginable  blessedness,  they  could  endure 
any  calamity  with  confidence.  The  restitution  was  to 
be  complete,  perpetual.  The  loss,  suffering,  scorn  which 
could  be  inflicted  on  them  by  any  human  power  was 
transient,  trifling.  They  who  believe  that  a  happy 
immortality  is  the  reward  of  this  life  and  labor  are 
invincible.  And  thus,  as  by  anticipation,  the  Apostle 
speaks  of  those  who  have  been  admitted  into  the  com- 
monwealth of  Christendom  as  already  dead.  His  words 
appear  to  have  been  misinterpreted  by  some  who  heard 
them,  and  who,  like  Hymenseus  and  Philetus,  alleged 
that  thereupon  the  resurrection  had  happened  already. 
But  to  the  mass  of  them  who  believed,  death  was  an 
exchange  from  a  life  of  sorrow,  persecution,  weakness, 
into  a  perfect  and  glorious  eternity,  as  soon  as  ever  the 
second  coming  of  Christ  took  place  —  an  event  which 
was  daily  expected.  Then,  immediately  on  the  sound 
of  the  trumpet  which  should  summon  them  to  accom- 


DERIVATION  OF  CHRISTIAN  DUTIES.      317 

pany  Him  who  would  meet  them  in  the  air,  the  king- 
doms of  the  world,  the  cruel  empire  of  Antichrist, 
would  be  shattered,  and  every  thing  would  be  made 
subject  to  God  and  His  Christ. 

To  this  belief  in  a  risen  Christ,  who  has  all  that  pro- 
found sympathy  with  human  nature  which  makes  Him 
so  winning  —  all  that  gentleness  which  invests  the 
Saviour  with  such  ineffiible  grace  —  all  that  holiness 
which  at  once  attracts  the  soul,  and  yet  constrains  it 
to  be  ever  watchful,  lest  some  contamination  should 
hinder  intercourse  with  Him  —  Paul  links  his  concep- 
tion of  a  church,  his  rule  of  Christian  life.  From  Christ 
came  all  gifts.  In  Him  is  the  unity  of  the  brotherhood. 
In  Him  begins  the  life  of  the  believer.  In  Him  the 
believer  rests.  For  Him  the  believer  labors.  In  Him 
he  gets  his  strength.  By  him  he  has  abundant  confi- 
dence in  the  mercy  and  love  of  God. 

The  derivation  of  Christian  duties  from  a  trust  in 
Christ  is  a  matter  of  frequent  exhortation  in  the 
Pauline  epistles.  Take  that,  for  example,  in  the  letter 
to  the  Ephesians.  "  I  w^ho  am  a  prisoner  in  the  Lord, 
exhort  you  to  walk  worthily  of  the  vocation  to  which 
you  have  been  called.  Show  all  conciliation,  and  gen- 
tleness, and  patience,  considerate  love  for  each  other, 
making  it  your  business  to  maintain  oneness  of  spirit, 
in  the  bond  of  peace.  There  is  one  body,  one  spirit, 
just  as  you  have  one  hope  in  the  fact  of  your  calling ; 
there  is  one  Lord,  one  trust,  one  baptism,  one  God  and 
Father  of  all,  who  is  over  all  things,  who  permeates  all 
things,  and  is  in  all  of  you.     Each  one  of  us  has  His 


318  PAUL    OF  TARSUS. 

grace  conferred  on  him  according  to  gifts  of  Christ. 
This  is  what  the  text  means :  — '  Having  ascended  to 
the  height,  He  led  ca^Dtivity  captive  and  gave  gifts  to 
men.'  The  exj^ression  '  ascended '  imphes  that  He 
previously  descended  to  the  lowest  region  of  earth. 
And  He  that  ascended  is  the  very  Person  who  has  as- 
cended above  the  whole  heavens,  that  He  may  occupy 
all  things.  And  this  Person  has  of  his  gifts  made 
some  a23ostles,  some  preachers,  some  evangelists,  some 
shepherds  and  teachers,  in  order  to  effect  the  j^erfection 
of  the  saints,  for  the  work  of  service,  for  the  building 
uj)  the  body  of  Christ,  —  to  continue  till  we  all  con- 
verge in  the  unity  of  our  trust,  and  of  our  acquaint- 
ance with  the  Son  of  God,  into  a  perfected  manhood, 
to  the  measure  of  that  growth  w^hich  contains  Christ. 
Be  not,  therefore,  any  longer  foolish  children,  tossed 
about  and  twisted  round  by  every  blast  of  dogma,  by 
the  tricks  of  men,  who,  for  sinister  ends,  would  cun- 
ningly entrap  you  in  error  ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  utter- 
ing the  truth  in  love,  let  us  grow  in  every  thing  up  to 
Him  who  is  the  head,  the  Christ,  from  whom  the  whole 
body  is  fitted  and  brought  together  in  every  joint 
of  its  perfection,  and,  according  to  the  vigor  which 
belongs  to  every  member,  who  effects  the  growth  of 
the  body  for  its  own  construction  in  love." 

This  passage  is  only  one  among  many  in  which  the 
Apostle  —  comparing  the  union  of  Christian  men  to 
the  highest  hving  organism —  intends  to  imply  that 
Christ  is  to  the  Church  what  life  and  intelligence  are  to 
the   physical   nature  of  mankind,  —  the  source  of  its 


THE  PAULINE  MORALITY  HIGH.  319 

vitality  and  enlightenment.  N^othing  can  be  more 
simple  than  the  elements  of  the  creed  with  which  this 
analogy  is  consistent.  To  know  that  Christ  lived  and 
taught,  died  and  rose  again,  in  order  to  redeem  man 
from  bondage,  reconcile  him  to  God,  save  him,  was  the 
knowledge  needed  for  that  primitive  faith.  To  know 
this,  and  know  it  thoroughly,  was  to  trust  in  Him  and 
the  Father,  and,  thereupon,  to  obtain  the  benefits  of 
Christ's  coming.  Then  comes  the  perpetual  indwelling 
of  Christ,  the  transformation  of  man's  moral  nature, 
and  the  code  of  duties,  which,  flowing  naturally  from 
the  conditions  of  a  Christian  polity,  have  a  permanent 
sanction,  by  being  fulfilled  in  the  highest  Exemplar  of 
human  life,  the  life  of  Christ ;  and  by  becoming,  as  they 
are  fulfilled  by  the  disciple,  the  pledge  and  requisite  of 
His  indwelling. 

It  cannot  be  said  that  this  perpetual  reference  of  the 
Christian  life  to  the  assistance  of  a  glorified  Person, 
w^ho  sustains,  exalts,  and  perfects  it,  is  accompanied  by 
any  concession  to  laxity  of  practice  or  conduct.  On 
the  contrary,  the  rule  of  the  Pauline  morality  is  as 
high  as  can  be  conceived.  He  utterly  broke  with  the 
ceremonial  law,  his  indifierence  to  Judaism  growing 
into  complete  antipathy  to  it  as  he  had  greater  experi- 
ence of  its  narrowness,  its  pedantry,  its  inconsistency 
with  Christian  liberty.  He  is  manifestly  careless  about 
observances  which  were  exacted  rigorously  in  his  own 
time  from  the  Jewish  Christians.  For  example,  he 
speaks  of  keeping  the  Sabbath  as  a  matter  of  indiffer- 
ence, in  the  Galatians  as  even  a  mark  of  feeble  com- 


320  PAUL    OF   TABS  US. 

pliance  with  what  he  calls  the  "beggarly  elements." 
He  assigns  no  overwhelming  importance  to  those  rites 
which  are  peculiarly  Christian — the  Sacraments  of 
the  Gospel  —  for  he  expressly  declares  that  he  did  not 
himself  baptize,  except  on  rare  occasions,  and  he  makes 
only  one  marked  reference  to  the  Lord's  Supper; 
when,  indeed,  he  strongly  condemns  the  practice  of 
those  who  perverted  it  into  a  scene  of  selfish  jollity,  of 
grossly  unbecoming  levity.  He  is  practically  silent  on 
church  government.  He  speaks  almost  contemptuously 
of  the  Twelve,  and  of  their  pretensions  to  authority. 
So  little  was  he  characterized  by  exactitude  of  phrase, 
and  jirecision  of  definition,  that  those  heretics  of  the 
first  ages,  against  whose  tenets  much  of  the  early  con- 
troversial theology  of  the  Christian  fathers  is  directed, 
a  -knowledged  his  authority,  and  quoted  from  his  epis- 
tles in  confirmation  of  their  theories. 

On  the  other  hand,  St.  Paul  is,  after  the  Master,  the 
moralist  of  the  Gospel.  His  directions  as  to  conduct 
are  numerous,  precise,  exhaustive.  Besides  those  which 
address  themselves  to  the  individual,  and  which  exact 
from  him  obedience  to  a  pure  and  searching  code  of 
conduct,  he  gives  directions  as  to  the  behavior  of  men 
as  members  of  churches,  as  holding  intercourse  with 
the  world  around  them,  as  united  in  the  great  brother- 
hood of  Christianity.  He  lays  down  rules  for  families, 
—  on  the  relations  of  husband  and  wife,  parent  and 
child,  master  and  servant,  —  all  these  rules  being  genial 
and  rational.  He  commends  neither  asceticism,  first 
preached  by  the  Buddhists,  and  afterwards  afiirmed  by 


PAUL'S   IDEA   OF  A   CHRISTIAN.  321 

Manichean  perversity ;  nor  monachism,  which  is  a  form 
of  apathetic  communism.  His  Christian  is  a  man  in 
the  world,  who  must,  perhaps,  considering  the  purpose 
of  his  hfe,  and  the  peculiar  trials  of  his  calling,  abstain 
fi'om  what  is  in  itself  lawful  and  expedient,  in  order 
that  he  may  be  disentangled  from  the  temporary  risks 
which  his  profession  ran.  But,  on  the  whole,  the  Pau- 
line morality  is  personal  and  domestic.  The  advice 
which  he  gives  to  the  Corinthians,  that,  under  existing 
emergencies,  a  single  life  is  the  safest,  is  professedly  an 
opinion.  In  the  Epistle  to  Timothy,  he  expressly  speaks 
of  compulsory  celibacy  as  a  doctrine  of  devils.  This 
plain-spoken  sentiment  may  be  a  contemptuous  allusion 
to  the  Ebionite  Christians,  who  had  given  him  so  much 
trouble,  but  the  experience  of  society  is  not  adverse 
to  the  judgment  of  St.  Paul.  He  would  have  people 
work  for  their  living,  inculcating  the  duty  of  industry 
in  terms  as  plain  as  those  which  are  used  by  the  Polit- 
ical Economist.  His  language  about  those  who  lazily 
depend  on  chance  or  charity  for  the  wants  of  their 
family  or  their  dependants  is  even  stronger,  for  he 
speaks  of  such  as  denying  the  faith  or  trust  they  should 
have  in  God,  and  as  lower  in  tone  than  the  unbeliever. 
That  he  was  no  advocate  of  niggardliness  towards 
such  as  need  help,  is  proved  by  his  continual  advice  to 
those  who  were  able  to  assist  poverty  or  distress  from 
their  abundance  ;  for  he  knew  that  poverty  will  always 
exist,  and  that  the  habit  of  judicious  almsgiving  is  a 
good  means  of  moral  culture ;  but  he  was  slow  to  re- 
ceive assistance  himself,  and  it  is  hardly  possible  to  fail 
14*  TJ 


322  PAUL    OF   TABSUS. 

of  seeing  a  covert  sarcasm  in  the  solitary  injunction 
which  he  confesses  to  having  received  from  the  Apos- 
tolic College,  that  he  and  his  associates  should  remem- 
ber the  poor,  by  which. is  meant  the  community  at 
Jerusalem.  He  did  remember  them,  and  owed  his 
imprisonment  at  Cnesarea  and  Rome  to  his  efforts  on 
their  behalf  However  ascetic  Christianity  may  have 
become  in  the  second  and  third  centuries  of  our  era, 
there  is  no  warranty  for  such  a  theory  of  religion  in 
the  Pauline  teaching  of  the  first. 

It  is  unfair  to  the  great  moralist  and  statesman  (if 
we  may  employ  the  latter  phrase)  of  the  infant  Church, 
not  to  distinguish  him  from  those  who  succeeded  to 
his  mission.  Christianity  was  charged  —  has  been 
charged  continually  —  with  making  men  austere,  re- 
served, unpatriotic,  dreamy.  There  is  no  warranty  for 
this  reproach  in  the  teaching  of  Paul,  whose  estimate 
of  the  claims  which  even  the  corrupt  society  of  the 
time  in  which  he  lived,  and  in  particular  that  of  Cor- 
inth, is  just  and  forcible.  In  a  true  spirit  of  toleration, 
he  would  not  have  his  converts  avoid  the  society 
of  idolaters,  though  he  would  —  as  every  respectable 
heathen  would  have  advised  —  recommend  them  to 
abstain  from  intercourse  with  profligate  or  immoral 
persons.  He  does  not  advise  married  persons,  one  of 
whom  may  be  brought  under  the  influence  of  the  Gos- 
pel, while  the  other  clung  to  heathenism,  to  use  the 
freedom  of  divorce  which  the  Roman  law  gave,  —  and 
this  for  domestic  as  well  as  for  religious  reasons.  Even 
his  advice  of  patience  to  slaves  is  part  of  the  theory 


SOCIAL   STATE  BEFORE  CHRISTIANITY.     323 

which  he  held,  —  that  Christianity  can  accommodate 
itself  to  any  condition  of  society,  provided  men  are 
obedient  to  the  Divine  law,  are  scrupulous  in  the  fulfil- 
ment of  all  duties. 

They  who  charge  the  Christianity  of  the  [N'ew  Test- 
ament with  timidity  and  want  of  spirit,  should  re- 
member what  the  social  state  was  in  which  it  began 
its  work.  The  world  never  saw  before  or  since  so 
relentless,  so  wide,  so  jealous,  so  immoral  a  despot- 
ism, —  has  never  seen  one  which  was  so  strong  in  sheer 
force.  Now,  there  are  two  ways  in  which  a  reforma- 
tion of  morals  and  opinion  can  be  attempted.  The  one 
is  resistance  —  which  is  rarely  efficacious,  and  in  this 
case  would  have  been  madness ;  the  other  is  endurance, 
—  which  generally  succeeds,  and  which  would  have 
succeeded  far  more  completely  in  the  history  of  Chris- 
tianity, had  not  the  Christians  of  the  fourth  century 
clutched  at  power  as  soon  as  they  were  able  to  grasp  it. 
The  Roman  empire  became  Christian  by  the  patience 
of  the  first  three  centuries ;  but  C/hristianity  failed  to 
regenerate  society,  because  it  readily  became  the  tool 
of  the  later  empire  —  became  an  establishment  instead 
of  a  gospel,  a  logomachy  instead  of  a  rule  of  life.  The 
dower  which  Constantine  gave  the  Church  was,  as 
Dante  says,  the  parent  of  vast  mischief,  and  more  than 
counterbalanced  the  splendor  of  the  imperial  conver- 
sion. Let  any  one  compare  for  himself  the  theoretical 
teaching  of  Paul  with  the  practical  bearing  of  all  that 
he  aflarms,  and  he  will  have  no  difficulty  in  determin- 


324  PAUL    OF  TARSUS. 

ing  what  would  have  been  the  history  of  the  world  if 
those  who  came  after  the  Jew  of  Tarsus  had  been  rep- 
resentatives of  his  spirit,  as  well  as  successors  to  his 
office. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

nr^HE  soul  of  man  longs  for  illumination  and  pardon. 
-*-  It  is  ignorant,  and  led  astray  by  evil  impulses. 
It  is  conscious  of  transgression,  whether  the  law  which 
it  has  violated  be  natural  —  or,  to  speak  in  the  spirit  of 
modern  philosophy,  one  which  society  has  elaborated 
and  enforced  for  its  own  preservation  ;  or  conventional 
—  by  which  must  be  understood  some  rule  of  munici- 
pal custom ;  or  divine  —  that  is,  has  been  propounded 
by  an  authority  which  claims  to  be  instructed  by  God. 
The  construction  of  human  society  renders  it  necessary 
that  interruptions  of  its  peace,  or  invasions  of  that 
security  which  all  political  institutions  profess  to  war- 
rant, should  be  repressed  and  punished.  Punishments 
inflicted  by  human  law  are  sometimes  treated  as  vindic- 
tive, sometimes  as  corrective,  according  as  it  seems 
necessary  to  avenge  a  wrong,  or  to  prevent  the  recur- 
rence of  an  injury ;  to  compensate  the  sufferer,  or  to 
protect  the  general  order  of  society  by  deterrents  which 
intending  criminals  can  appreciate  and  dread.  A  later 
theory  of  punishment,  which  has  been  developed  from 
humanitanan  Christianity,  and  from  it  alone,  proposes 
to  effect  the  reformation  of  the  offender.  It  is  possible 
that  the  acceptance  of  this  humane  theory  of  punish- 


326  PAUL   OF   TARSUS. 

ment  may  be  assisted  by  the  fact,  that  the  judgment  of 
hiw  is  fallible,  both  in  its  decision  of  the  act  and  in  its 
interpretation  of  the  motive,  and  that,  therefore,  the 
case  of  the  criminal  is  and  should  be  open  to  favorable 
consideration.  But  this  is  not  the  original  theory  of 
social  defence.  Men  must  accept  the  risk  which  the 
administration  of  law  by  a  fallible  judge  involves,  since 
they  obtain  the  advantages  of  its  administration,  for  the 
latter  are  immeasurably  greater  than  the  former.  If  a 
legislature  seeks  to  reform  its  criminals,  it  does  so 
because  it  has  been  interpenetrated  by  that  instinct  of 
the  religious  sense  which  makes  the  salvation  of  a  human 
soul  at  once  a  duty  and  a  merit.  In  this  country  such 
an  opinion  is  strongly  entertained.  But  there  have 
not  been  wanting  jurists  and  moralists  who,  looking  at 
society  from  the  stand-point  of  utility,  have  entertained 
a  harsher  theory  of  punishment,  —  have  conceived  that 
crime  is  best  checked  by  relying  on  the  deterrent  force 
of  punishment  only,  is  even  stimulated  by  the  ma- 
chinery of  a  reformatory  in  which  criminals  are  to 
repent  and  amend. 

It  is  to  be  observed  that  law  ignores  many  offences 
against  morality,  and  frequently  punishes  acts  which 
are  no  violation  of  morality  whatever.  A  man  may 
lead  a  life  which  is  profligate  and  scandalous,  may  set 
an  evil  example,  may  mislead  or  debauch  others.  But, 
however  mischievous  his  course  of  action  may  be, 
society  may  not  visit  him  with  any  penalties  of  law,  — 
partly  because  it  has  seen  good  reason  to  limit  the 
operation  of  criminal  justice;   partly  because  the  evil 


THE  RANGE   OF  HUMAN  LAW.  327 

which  the  culprit  does  is  legally  imponderable  or  vague 
in  its  effects ;  sometimes  because  the  check  which  law 
could  impose  might  induce  other  practices  quite  as 
mischievous,  or  even  more  dangerous  in  their  effects, 
but  less  open  to  detection  or  reprobation.  For  it  must 
not  be  forgotten  that  custom  has  a  wider  range  of  cor- 
rective action  than  law  has,  and  that  its  preventive 
power  is  even  more  efficacious  than  that  of  judicial 
punishment.  And,  on  the  other  hand,  both  law  and 
custom  visit  with  penalty  and  rebuke  practices  which 
are  not  in  themselves  immoral.  The  laws  of  nearly 
every  country  inflict  disabilities,  and  prohibit  acts 
which  are  in  themselves  just  and  natural.  Thus,  for 
instance,  they  have  disabled  persons  who  entertain 
particular  beliefs,  or  are  unable  to  entertain  other 
beliefs,  —  sometimes  treating  certain  opinions  as  the 
highest  crimes.  They  who  challenge  the  value  or 
advantage  of  established  institutions,  whether  political 
or  ecclesiastical,  have  been  visited  with  nearly  equal 
rigor;  have  been  condemned,  proscribed,  banished, 
though  their  opinions  have  been  simply  speculative. 
Over  and  over  again  it  has  happened  that  the  fathers 
have  slain,  and  the  sons  have  canonized  the  prophets. 
Christianity  has  lasted  for  nearly  nineteen  centuries, 
and  Christian  men  have  not  yet  accepted  the  command 
laid  down  by  the  great  Master  of  their  religion,  —  "  Let 
wheat  and  tares  grow  together  till  the  harvest." 

It  is  inevitable  that  man  should  recognize  among  the 
attributes  of  God  the  functions  of  a  judge.  He  does 
80  from  the  analogy  of  civil  society.     The  office  of  the 


328  PAUL   OF   TARSUS. 

judge  is  the  most  beneficent  and  the  most  sacred  of 
human  institutions.  Reverence  for  law  is  the  first  con- 
dition of  civilization ;  the  administration  of  law  is  the 
most  permanent  and  useful  service  which  a  citizen  ob- 
tains from  the  State ;  obedience  to  law  is  the  first  civil 
duty,  and  the  judge  is  the  imjDcrsonation  of  these 
benefits.  This  is  the  power  to  which  the  Apostle 
commands  subjection  —  ascribing  its  authority,  even 
when  "wielded  by  the  heathen,  to  the  direct  ordina- 
tion of  God.  But  human  law  is  confessedly  imperfect, 
—  cannot  right  all  wrongs  —  cannot  punish  all  injuries. 
Hence  they  whom  law  does  not  reach,  and  they  whom 
law  dqps  not  aid,  will  inevitably  be  cited  to  appear  be- 
fore the  Judge  of  all,  in  order  that  the  question  may 
be  tried,  and  right  may  be  done.  So  the  religious 
sense,  whenever  it  intrenches  itself  in  moral  obliga- 
tions, always  afiirms.  Recompense,  restitution,  are 
assured  in  that  judgment;  patience,  hope,  faith,  are 
developed  from  a  confidence  that  it  will  be  pronounced. 
The  Divine  tribunal  is  a  permanent  court  of  appeal 
from  human  error  and  human  jDartiality.  It  is  set  up 
in  the  mythology  of  Greece  and  Rome,  in  Eastern 
nations,  in  the  polytheism  of  Egypt,  in  every  creed 
which  is  spiritual.  In  the  Mosaic  theology  the  Judge 
chastises  the  oifender  with  temporal  suffering,  rewards 
or  recompenses  the  injured  person  with  temporal  bless- 
ing—  the  appeal  being  immediate,  the  providence  secu- 
lar, since  the  ancient  Israelite  is  always  represented  as 
living  under  the  direct  government  of  Jehovah.  The 
people  were  in  view  of  the  Shekinah,  and  the  doctrine 


THE  RANGE   OF  DIVINE  LAW.  329 

of  hereafter  remained  undeveloped  in  the  majesty  of 
His  presence. 

They  who  cherish  the  thought  that  God  is  a  judge 
between  man  and  man,  cannot  but  confess  that  their 
own  acts  are  open  to  His  interpretation,  and  within 
the  scope  of  His  judgment.  Sometimes,  indeed,  per- 
sons have  believed  that  they  run  no  risk  of  His  anger, 
—  that  they  are  elect,  impeccable,  assured  of  His  per- 
petual favor ;  that  in  their  case  at  least,  judgment  is 
foregone.  But  the  conscience  of  most  men  is  proof 
against  this  egotism.  They  are  not  arrogant  enough 
to  claim  perfection,  but,  on  the  contrary,  are  alive  to 
faults  in  themselves  —  to  infirmity  of  purpose,  negli- 
gence in  practice,  readiness  in  yielding  to  temptation, 
forgetfulness  of  duty,  unfair  or  ungenerous  dealing  to- 
wards others.  They  know  that  such  acts  and  feelings, 
if  unchecked,  are  the  beginning  of  those  offences  which 
even  human  law  reaches  ;  and  if  they  know  so  much, 
how  much  more  must  He  know,  whose  equity  as  a 
judge  is  the  consequent  of  His  perfect  wisdom,  tran- 
scendent knowledge,  universal  providence. 

The  range  of  the  Divine  judgment,  therefore,  must 
be  vastly  wider  than  that  of  human  law.  Man  can 
deal  only  with  that  which  is  actual,  but  the  prescience 
of  the  Almighty  detects  the  offence  in  its  beginnings, 
when  it  is  only  potential,  when  the  germ  of  the  evil  is 
commencing  its  growth.  Man  can  deal  only  with  some 
offences  —  those,  namely,  which  inflict  a  definite  and 
intelligible  injury  on  individuals  or  on  the  security  of 
society ;  but  God  judges  that  which  offends  His  holi- 


330  PAUL    OF   TARSUS. 

ness,  or  does  damage  to  the  civitas  Dei.  Man  adjudi- 
cates on  intentions  when  they  are  developed  into  ac- 
tion; the  Divine  sight  takes  cognizance  of  thoughts, 
from  which  actions  may  spring.  The  falUbility  of  man 
constrains  him  to  treat  doubtful  cases  with  leniency, 
unless  justice  is  to  become  unduly  severe  and  intolera- 
bly capricious ;  but  in  the  light  of  God's  countenance 
there  is  nothing  doubtful,  in  the  clearness  of  His  judg- 
ment nothing  fallible.  It  is  no  wonder  then,  that  when 
this  conception  of  the  great  Judge  occupies  the  relig- 
ious sense,  no  sacrifice  is  too  costly  to  deprecate  the 
anger  which  He  may  be  supposed  to  feel  at  the  offence 
which  He  sees  so  plainly  and  so  unerringly,  —  the 
extent  and  meaning  of  which  He  recognizes  with  far 
greater  distinctness  than  the  tenderest  and  most  sus- 
ceptible conscience  can  conceive  it.  To  acknowledge 
the  judgment  of  God  is,  by  inevitable  sequence,  to  con- 
fess and  know  that  a  clear,  vigilant,  penetrating  eye  is 
always  fixed  on  the  innermost  nature  of  each  man,  and 
that  as  this  vision  sees  every  thing,  so  it  forgets  noth- 
ing. The  scriptures  of  the  Old  Testament,  and  par- 
ticularly the  Psalms,  constantly  affirm  the  unwearied 
and  watchfnl  scrutiny  of  the  Divine  presence.  The 
language  of  the  New  is  not  less  precise  as  to  the  uni- 
versality of  the  same  Providence. 

The  conception  would  be  intolerable,  were  it  not  that 
so  sensitive  a  religious  instinct  invariably  assigns  to 
the  Almighty  a  beneficent  regard  for  His  creatures,  a 
willingness  to  accept  repentance,  a  readiness  to  bestow 
strength    and   deliverance,  —  the  qualities  of  forbear- 


GOD'S  JUDGMENT  AND   COMPASSION.      331 

ance,  long-suffering,  patience,  compassion.  He  is  the 
Father,  who  not  only  supplies  the  wants,  but  bears 
with  the  petulance  and  disobedience  of  His  children. 
His  wrath  is  roused  against  those  only  who  deny  Him 
his  due  honor,  who  say  He  is  not,  who  go  astray  after 
other  gods,  who  repudiate  His  authority,  as  well  as  dis- 
regard His  injunctions.  But  to  those  who  acknowl- 
edge Him,  He  is  always  placable.  He  always  invites 
them  to  repent,  He  always  accepts  their  penitence,  He 
always  grants  them  forgiveness.  It  is  every  thing  to 
know  Him,  for  when  He  is  known,  the  awful  features 
of  the  great  Judge  become  a  vision  of  inefiable  tender- 
ness and  pity,  of  sympathy  for  weak  and  struggling 
humanity,  of  Fatherly  love  for  wayward  childhood,  of 
watchfulness  over  feeble  steps,  of  attention  to  the 
utterance  of  wants  and  desires,  of  solicitude,  bounty, 
gentleness.  He  is  the  wise  and  tender  Father,  who 
shows  compassion  to  all  His  children. 

One  thing,  however.  He  exacts,  —  as  He  is  merciful, 
so  man  must  be  merciful.  He  will  not  forgive  the 
unforgiving.  The  surest  sign  of  impenitence  is  a  hard, 
imperious,  unpitying  temper.  It  is  as  though  He  could 
not  but  exact  on  behalf  of  those  who  are  wronged, 
whatever  is  their  abstract  right ;  but  as  though  with 
this,  He  would  give  nothing  but  that  bare  right  to  him 
who  mercilessly  rejects  the  suit  of  another.  Man  can 
forgive  the  offence  which  has  been  committed  against 
himself  For  thus  far,  at  least,  he  still  retains  that 
image  of  God  in  which  he  was  created.  But  if  he  in- 
sists  on  his  literal   due  fi-om  his  neighbor,  he  cannot 


oh-2  PAUL    OF  TARSUS. 

expect  consideration  from  another,  and  least  of  all 
from  Him  who  knows  how  imperfect  has  been  the 
obedience  of  His  creatm-es,  and  how  unwarrantable  it 
is  for  man  to  be  implacable,  when  he  most  needs  such 
forgiveness  himself.  To  be  unmerciful  and  unforgiving 
is  to  deny  the  Fatherhood  of  God,  and  to  look  on  Him 
only  as  a  Judge.  "  To  him,"  says  the  Apostle  James, 
—  speaking  in  the  spirit  of  the  Hebrew  prophet,  and  as 
the  servant  of  Christ,  —  "  who  does  no  mercy  shall  be 
pitiless  judgment  given ;  mercy  has  higher  claims  than 
judgment." 

It  is  inevitable,  in  so  far  as  a  belief  in  God  and  in 
His  Providence  exists,  that  religion  should  develop,  to 
a  greater  or  less  extent,  such  conceptions  of  the  rela- 
tion in  which  man  stands  to  the  Maker,  the  Judge, 
the  Father,  as  have  been  stated  above.  The  Law  must 
be  stricter  and  more  rigorous  than  that  which  human 
society  can  enact,  the  Lawgiv^er  must  take  clearer 
cognizance  of  facts  and  motives  than  human  legislation 
can  achieve  or  attempt.  The  justice  of  the  All-wise 
will  be  tempered  with  mercy.  On  the  other  hand,  as 
no  injury  can,  except  by  a  figure  of  speech,  be  put  on 
the  Almighty,  but  only  on  those  who  are  equally  the 
objects  of  His  Providence  and  Love,  the  mercy  which 
He  shows  can  be  anticipated  by  forgiveness,  granted  on 
the  part  of  those  who  are  wronged,  and  can  only  be 
obtained  on  the  condition  that  the  penitent  is  willing 
to  accord  the  pardon  which  he  begs  for.  And,  in  a 
more  or  less  perfect  form,  these  religious  tenets  char- 
acterize all  theological   systems  which  have  ever  con- 


THE  PAULINE  DOCTRINE   OF  SIN.        333 

tamed  a  just  conception  of  the  Deity.  The  forgiveness 
of  injuries  is  no  peculiar  maxim  of  Christian  ethics.  It 
is  Jewish,  Zoroastrian,  Pythagorean,  Platonic,  Stoic. 
So  is  the  great  defensive  rule  of  social  morality  —  that 
of  doing  as  we  would  be  done  by.  It  is  not  without 
reason  that  the  Psalmist  —  having  averred  that  the 
fool  hath  said  in  his  heart,  There  is  no  God  —  portrays 
the  converse  of  that  picture  which  a  lively  conscience 
of  God's  presence  exhibits,  narrates  the  deeds  of  those 
who  deny  His  Providence  and  Justice,  and  accounts 
for  that  social  panic,  that  fear  where  no  fear  is,  which 
follows  on  the  extinction  of  the  religious  sense  —  the 
absence  of  God's  fear  before  men's  eyes. 

The  Epistle  to  the  Komans  contains  the  Pauline 
doctrine  of  sin.  The  passage  just  referred  to,  or 
rather  two  passages  grouped  together  from  the  Psalms 
—  the  fourteenth  and  the  fifty-third  —  are  cited  in 
order  to  prove  the  universality  of  sin.  The  narrative 
of  the  fall  of  Adam  is  made  the  basis  of  a  similar 
generalization.  Death  was  the  penalty  annexed  to  the 
offence  committed  in  the  garden,  death  has  been  the 
lot  of  humanity  ever  since,  and,  therefore,  the  sin  of 
the  first  progenitor  of  mankind  was  propagated  through 
his  offspring.  This  position,  on  which  St.  Paul  insists 
more  than  once,  was  derived  from  the  teaching  of 
the  Rabbis.  The  facts  of  the  Mosaic  cosmogony  were 
admitted,  and  the  explanation  was  obvious  and  con- 
venient. It  is  to  be  observed,  however,  that  the 
derived  sin  of  Adam's  descendants  was  inferred  from 
the  mortality  of  man's  body,  —  the  dogma  of  trans- 
mitted guilt  was  a  gloss. 


334  PAUL  OF   TARSUS. 

That  the  Apostle  fully  believed  in  the  sufficiency  of 
his  explanation  as  to  the  origin  of  moral  evil  will  be 
readily  allowed.  That  he  quoted  the  passages  from 
the  Septuagint  —  in  which  David  is  celebrating  some 
victory  over  his  foreign  and  domestic  enemies,  and 
contrasting  their  evil  doings  with  the  character  of  the 
generation  of  the  righteous,  —  as  though  it  were  a 
theological  declaration  about  the  universal  dejDravity 
of  mankind,  and  that  he  made  the  quotation  in  perfect 
good  faith  need  not  be  doubted.  The  allegorical 
interpretation  of  Scripture  was  so  customary  among 
the  Jews  of  the  Pauline  era,  and  was  adopted  so 
naturally  by  Christian  teachers,  that  we  need  not  be 
surprised  at  the  citation  of  this  passage,  in  which  a 
slight  analogy  is  taken  to  be  a  conclusive  proof  A 
glance,  indeed,  will  show  that  David  did  not  mean  to 
affirm,  in  the  2:)assages  quoted,  the  universal  depravity 
of  man's  nature,  still  less  to  apply  these  words  to  those 
who  are  under  the  Law,  as  the  Apostle  implies  that 
he  does.  It  is  possible  that  he  was  thinking  of  his 
rebellious  son  and  the  associates  of  his  revolt ;  but,  it 
is  far  more  likely  that,  when  he  speaks  of  the  bones  of 
them  that  besieged  Zion,  he  had  before  him  Chemosh, 
or  Milcom,  or  Moloch,  —  the  abomination  of  the  nations 
round  about ;  whose  worship  the  Israelite  contemptu- 
ously, perhaps  justly,  called  fornication ;  and  who 
had  been  eating  up  Israel  as  though  they  were  eating 
bread. 

And,  similarly,  it  may  be  proved  that  the  varieties 
of  the  human  race  cannot  be  referred  to  a  common 


HISTORICAL    ORIGIN  OF  SIN.  335 

origin ;  that  the  history  of  humanity  is  not  retrogres- 
sion from  a  pure  exemplar,  but  progress  from  compar- 
ative or  actual  barbarism;  that  the  primeval  Adam, 
at  least  of  many  races,  was  no  dweller  in  a  Paradise, 
who  talked  with  God,  and  had  the  gift,  or,  at  least,  the 
prospect  of  immortal  life,  but  a  savage  who  slowly 
elaborated  the  arts  of  domestic  life,  who  maintained  a 
warfare  against  wild  beasts,  and  who  lived  at  so 
remote  a  period,  that  many  species  of  animals  had  dis- 
appeared since  he  first  walked  on  the  earth.  If  such 
a  theory  can  be  maintained,  there  is  no  escape  from 
one  of  two  alternatives.  Either  the  man  and  woman 
of  the  Mosaic  account  are  the  progenitors  of  one 
family  of  mankind,  and,  therefore,  have  transmitted 
their  sin  and  their  hope  to  those  only  who  have  sprung 
from  them ;  or  the  story  of  Adam  and  Eve  is  one  of 
those  allegories  in  which  men  have  always  delighted, 
and  by  which  they  have  wished  to  express  the  con- 
viction, that  the  facts  of  later  social  life  represent  a 
decline  from  primeval  purity, — just  as  the  Greeks 
consoled  themselves  in  the  depravity  and  violence  of 
their  own  epoch  with  the  dream  of-  a  golden  age,  with 
a  Hyperborean  felicity,  with  the  islands  of  the  blest, 
with  the  garden  of  golden  fruit,  and  similar  schemes 
of  an  imagination  which  protests  against  the  evil 
which  it  sees,  but  cannot  or  will  not  cure.  Under 
neither  explanation,  however,  can  the  narrative  of  the 
garden  be  an  exposition  of  the  origin  of  evil. 

The  historical  origin   of  sin,  vice,  infirmity  of  pur- 
pose,  selfishness,   sensuality,   is    not    so   important   a 


336  PAUL    OF  TABSUS. 

matter  for  consideration  as  the  fact  that  these  things 
are.  The  discovery  and  apj^lication  of  remedies  for 
those  CA'ils  is  a  problem,  pending  the  solution  of  which 
all  creation  groans  and  travails  in  pain.  Every  re- 
ligion which  contains  in  itself  a  spark  of  the  Divine 
fire  professes  to  have  discovered  a  more  or  less  efiect- 
ual  remedy  for  such  mischiefs.  Every  religion  which 
has  actually  found  out  some  aid  towards  the  mo^al 
progress  of  mankind  has  done  its  part  in  the  general 
scheme  of  social  regeneration.  It  is  matter  of  very 
little  consequence  whether  this  or  that  teacher  has 
accurately  traced  out  the  sources  of  the  disorder  which 
he  has  learnt  to  rectify.  It  is  enough  to  cast  out 
devils  in  the  name  of  Christ.  In  the  treatment  of 
disease,  —  moral  no  less  than  physical,  —  it  is  important 
to  know  the  cause  of  the  sickness  only  when  the  cause 
and  effect  exist  and  cease  to  exist  simultaneously. 
When  the  infection  has  been  taken,  it  is  of  very  little 
importance  to  the  patient  or  the  physician  to  be  able 
to  identify  the  origin  of  the  malady.  In  such  a  crisis, 
the  first  thing  which  has  to  be  considered  is  the  treat- 
ment. Nay,  w^hen  the  symptoms  are  grave,  and  the 
situation  is  urgent,  it  is  worse  than  a  waste  of  labor 
to  speculate  on  the  source  of  the  complaint  —  to 
wrangle  over  theories,  and  to  abstain  from  j^rompt  and 
decisive  action. 

St.  Paul  thinks  that  he  has  the  Spirit  of  God.  He 
says  so  modestly,  and  if  ever  man  could  say  it,  he  says 
so  truly.  If  life  and  labor  such  as  his  were,  —  if  in- 
tense activity,  and  equally  intense  love,  such  as  con- 


WHAT  CONSERVES   SOCIETY  BEST.         337 

stituted  his  very  nature,  —  were  delusions,  he  might 
well  call  himself  of  all  men  most  miserable ;  we  might 
despair  of  the  human  race,  and  assert  that  the  heaviest 
curse  which  has  fallen  on  mankind  is  that  gift  —  suici- 
dal, as  we  should  then  justly  call  it  —  of  a  disinterested 
and  self-sacrificing  sense  of  duty.  If  it  be  the  case 
that  they  who  have  diligently  set  themselves  to  profit 
by  the  order  of  society  and  the  convictions  of  others, 
in  order  to  gather  together  the  means  of  rank,  wealth, 
pleasure,  ease,  are  the  equals  or  superiors  of  those 
who  have  slighted  such  advantages,  in  order  that  they 
may  efiect  a  permanent  improvement  in  the  lot  of 
their  fellow-men,  —  if  a  refined  and  temperate  selfish- 
ness, a  shrewd,  cold  prudence,  is  as  good  an  end  of 
human  life  as  a  lofty  perseverance  after  great  and  gen- 
erous objects,  no  delusion  can  be  more  gross  than 
Christianity.  But,  it  must  be  added,  that  the  awak- 
ening from  this  delusion  would  arrest  civihzation,  and 
rapidly  drive  men  back  to  savagery.  For  a  time, 
indeed,  power  might  ally  itself  with  intelligence,  and 
might  oppress  mankind.  But  very  speedily  every 
man's  hand  would  be  against  his  fellow-man,  and  the 
sneer  of  the  sophist  would  become  the  law  of  nature. 
Justice  would  be  the  interest  of  the  strongest,  and 
internecine  war  the  unchanging  lot  of  humanity. 

There  is  an  inveterate  difficulty  in  believing  that 
the  Apostle  is  the  mouth-piece  of  a  positive  revelation. 
If  there  is  reason  to  know  that  he  misquotes,  or  mis- 
understands the  authority  to  which  he  appeals,  or  that 
the  historical  statement  to  which  he  refers,  in  order  to 
15  V 


338  PAUL   OF  TABS  US. 

substantiate  his  generalization,  is  no  fact  at  all,  but  an 
apologue  or  a  parable,  we  may,  we  ought  to  decline 
acceptance  of  the  proof.  His  conclusions  may  be  true, 
though  his  premises  may  be  irrelevant  or  false.  When 
a  conclusion  is  certified  by  experience,  formal  and  pre- 
cise proof  is  not  always  necessary  in  order  to  secure 
conviction,  just  as  it  is  not  always  possible.  Such  a 
condition  is  frequent  in  moral  science,  —  all  but  uni- 
versal in  the  case  of  religious  conviction.  And  so  it 
does  not  follow  that  the  Pauline  conclusion  is  false 
because  the  Apostle's  premises  are  irrelevant.  The 
words  of  the  Psalmist  may  not  mean  that  human 
nature  is  universally  corrupt,  —  the  derivation  of  sin 
from  the  taint  of  Adam's  transgression  may  be  a 
paradox,  as  it  certainly  seems  to  be  at  variance  with 
what  we  believe  of  the  Divine  justice ;  but  man's 
nature  may  yet  be  universally  corrupt,  —  man  maybe 
naturally  inclined  to  evil,  —  we  may  have  no  truth  in 
us,  and  deceive  ourselves  if  we  say  that  we  have  no 
sin ;  we  may  still  need  a  Teacher,  a  Saviour,  a  Re- 
deemer. St.  John  is  as  powerful  a  witness  to  the  sin- 
fulness of  man  as  St.  Paul  is,  though  he  does  not  ascribe 
this  infirmity  to  the  hereditary  taint  of  descent  from 
a  disobedient  ancestor. 

It  matters  nothing  whether  man  has  sprung  from  a 
savage  ancestry,  the  mental  powers  of  which  were 
hardly  higher  than  those  of  the  other  animals  with 
whom  the  primeval  barbarian  herded,  or  whether  he 
is  the  defaced  copy  of  a  Divine  Exemplar.  The  fact 
of  interest  is  that  he  is  now  liable  to  impulses  which, 


SECULAR  AND  RELIGIOUS   SOCIALISM.    389 

if  unrestrained,  would  make  instant  havoc  of  society, 
and  which  are  therefore  partly  coerced  by  law,  partly 
by  custom,  partly,  and  most  of  all,  by  the  religious 
sense.  Take  away  the  influence  which  the  latter  ex- 
ercises,—  and  it  appears  that  no  substitute  can  be 
found  for  it,  —  and  it  seems  inevitable,  either  that 
social  forces,  which  are  nearly  equal  in  strength,  will 
engage  in  the  fiercest  struggle  for  supremacy,  or  that 
power  will  create  a  rigorous  and  jealous  despotism, 
under  which  the  ruler  and  his  instruments  need  only 
to  be  active  and  cunning,  and  the  people  will  be  per- 
manently sunk  in  ignorance  and  degradation. 

Philosophers  and  publicists  have  frequently  busied 
themselves  with  the  project  of  constructing  a  common 
life  for  voluntary  associations;  but  they  have  never 
been  able  to  discover  any  thing  which  shall  be  strong 
enough  to  make  these  associations  cohere  together. 
There  are  no  secular  Coenobites.  Religious  associa- 
tions, on  the  other  hand,  have  existed  in  plenty,  and 
have  had  a  very  tenacious  vitality.  The  apostolic 
college  at  Jerusalem  is  the  earliest  Christian  exemplar. 
The  French  missionaries  found  monasteries  in  abun- 
dance through  central  Asia,  among  the  Buddhists.  In 
the  United  States  there  are  several  communities  of 
Coenobites.  So  vast  is  that  country,  and  so  little  is 
any  attrition  of  sects  felt  in  the  rural  districts  of  the 
Union,  that  these  social  experiments  have  a  fairer 
chance  of  success  and  endurance  in  America  than  they 
would  have  elsewhere.  But  every  one  of  these  com- 
munistic schemes  is  founded  on    a    relionous  basis  — 


340  PAUL    OF  TARSUS. 

even  when,  as  is  charged  against  some  of  them,  the 
practice  of  the  community  is  licentious.  A  religion 
may  consist  of  little  more  than  dogma,  or  it  may 
ignore  dogmas  and  court  asceticism,  or  it  may  be 
neither  dogmatic  nor  ascetic,  but  demand  an  active 
charity  and  a  pure  heart.  Each  of  these  religions  has 
its  schedule  of  offences.  In  the  first  the  sin  is  called 
heresy ;  in  the  second  it  is  called  worldliness ;  in  the 
third  it  is  a  breach  of  the  inner  lav\^,  which  God  has 
ordained  and  conscience  sanctioned.  In  each  case  it 
is  supposed  that  the  commission  of  the  sin  secludes 
the  man  who  commits  it  from  his  Maker,  leaves  him  to 
the  anger  of  the  Judge,  excludes  him  from  the  love  of 
the  Father,  cuts  him  off  from  illumination  and  pardon. 
An  offence  against  religion  is  called  a  sin.  The  word 
commonly  used  for  this  state  is  one  which  expresses  an 
error,  mistake,  misconception,  less  culpable  than  delib- 
erate or  wanton  wickedness,  but  blameworthy  because 
care  and  forethought  would  have  prevented  its  occur- 
rence. The  sinner  is  one  who  has  missed  his  way, 
whose  path  has  been  dark,  and  who  has  therefore 
strayed  from  it.  The  word  suggests  excuse,  pardon, 
reconciliation;  is  contrasted  with  another  state  in 
which  the  light  is  deliberately  put  out;  in  which  the 
offence  is  wilful,  daring,  insolent ;  in  which  the  man  is 
lawless  or  unjust.  Thus,  the  synoptic  gospels  affirm 
that  there  is  a  sin  against  the  Holy  Ghost,  —  against 
that  Power  which  enlightens,  strengthens,  teaches  men. 
The  author  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  contemplates 
the  case  of  those  who  have  been  enlightened  and  have 


i 


DEFINITIONS    OF  SIN.  341 

repudiated  the  gift,  in  language  containing  the  strong- 
est phrases  of  nascent  Gnosticism,  the  phraseology  of 
the  Alexandrian  Theosophists.  The  beloved  disciple 
declares  that  there  is  a  sin  unto  death.  Paul  speaks  of 
the  rejected,  those  who  fail  on  being  tested ;  or,  as  our 
version  gives  ^  it,  though  with  a  force  Avhich  familiarity 
has  weakened,  the  cast-away,  —  the  vessels  which  the 
potter  has  framed  and  found  to  be  unsound  or  unser- 
viceable. But,  generally,  the  language  of  the  New 
Testament  is  merciful  towards  sin,  excludino;  no  one 
from  penitence  and  pardon.  "This  is  good  and  ap- 
proved before  God  our  Saviour,  who  wills  that  all  men 
should  be  saved  and  arrive  at  an  insight  into  the  truth," 
says  the  Apostle  in  the  first  letter  to  Timothy.  The 
charity  of  Christ  is  universal,  the  love  of  God  is  un- 
bounded, the  door  to  repentance  is  open,  and  the  Gos- 
pel of  the  New  Covenant  is  as  merciful  as  the  teaching 
of  the  Prophets. 

As  religion  leans  to  the  contemplative,  the  ascetic,  or 
the  practical  consequence  of  illumination  or  regenera- 
tion, so  it  stigmatizes  as  sin  a  departure  from  the  rule 
of  the  life  which  it  has  inculcated.  It  has  happened 
that  the  first  of  these  forms  of  religious  opinion  has 
exercised  so  energetic  an  influence,  that  conformity  to 
written  creeds  is  treated  as  the  highest  duty,  divergence 
from  them  as  the  most  grievous  sin.  The  Roman 
Church,  for  example,  has  multiplied  the  "articles  of 
faith,"  and  has  uttered  its  anathema  against  those  who 
decline  to  accept  any  of  its  dogmas.  It  is  probable 
that  the  terrors  of  this  denunciation  have  been  weak- 


342  PAUL    OF   TABS  US. 

ened,  but  there  are  millions  of  professed  Christians  to 
whose  conscience  doctrinal  heresy  is  the  highest  crime 
that  can  be  committed  against  the  Majesty  of  God. 
Perhaps  there  has  been  no  country  where  this  dread  of 
unbelief  has  been  more  general  than  in  Spain.  Here 
the  suspicion  of  heresy  was  more  feared  than  the  rej^u- 
tation  of  any  moral  depravity.  So  there  are  parts  of 
Italy,  where  people  have  united  the  profession  of  brig- 
andage with  the  most  scrupulous  and  sincere  ortho- 
doxy. It  is  obvious  that  the  most  lively  horror  at  the 
imputation  of  unsound  opinion  on  theological  topics  is 
quite  compatible  wdth  the  utter  absence  of  all  the  other 
elements  of  the  religious  life,  and  that  the  strictest,  the 
most  heartfelt  j^rofession  of  a  creed  is  no  guarantee  of 
a  single  Christian  virtue. 

To  any  one  who  considers  how  different  are  the 
capacities  of  men  for  comprehending  focts  and  reason- 
ing out  conclusions,  how  difficult  it  must  be  to  form 
any  comprehension  whatever  of  those  remote  and  ex- 
alted conceptions  which  theology  attempts  to  define 
and  limit,  —  how  much  less  responsible,  on  the  plainest 
principles  of  justice,  a  man  must  be  for  an  error  of 
judgment  or  opinion,  than  he  is  for  an  offence  against 
virtue  or  morality,  —  it  must  seem  strange  that  Mse 
opinion  has  been  treated  as  sin.  Hitherto,  indeed,  old 
and  new  forms  of  religious  organization  have  been  at 
one  on  this  point,  and  have  held  the  non-acceptance  of 
a  tenet  as  a  criminal  act,  as  one  which  should  be  visited 
with  social  or  even  legal  penalties. 

They  have  even  asserted,  perhaps  in  justification  of 


MORAL   ANT)   DOCTRINAL    ORTHODOXY.     343 

their  practice,  that  theological  error  is  the  consequence 
of  moral  guilt.  But  men  have  constantly  lived  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  highest  and  purest  moral  virtue, 
while  they  have  been  sceptical  or  heterodox  on  specula- 
tive questions.  And  conversely,  men  whose  orthodoxy 
has  been  unimpeached  have  often  set  an  evil  example 
of  conduct,  have  allowed  their  lives  to  belie  their  pro- 
fession, have  even  attempted  a  compromise,  under  the 
terms  of  which  strictness  of  conformity  is  made  to  com- 
pensate for  laxity  of  practice.  Such  persons  have  fi-e- 
quently  been  treated  with  the  greatest  leniency  by 
those  who  agree  with  them  in  opinion.  But  if  theolog- 
ical error  were  the  cause  of  vice,  it  ought  to  follow 
that  the  possession  of  theological  truth  must  be  a 
guarantee  of  holiness. 

There  are  opinions,  positively  entertained,  which  are 
immoral  in  their  tendency.  Any  opinion,  for  example, 
winch  separates  a  man  from  those  relations  to  God, 
which  are  at  once  the  pledge  of  his  trust  in  God, 
and  which  exact  a  constant  watchfulness  over  life  or 
action;  any  tenet  which  would  induce  a  man  to  sub- 
stitute any  other  agency  than  his  own  conscience,  or 
his  own  duty,  in  the  satisfaction  of  a  moral  obligation, 
—  is  in  itself  immoral.  The  guide  may  be  a  Pharisee, 
and  the  bhnd  may  lead  the  blind;  the  ceremonial 
need  not  purify  the  heart,  but  may  leave  the  man  a 
whited  sepulchre. 

There  is,  however,  a  serious  danger  involved  in  the 
doctrine  that  the  acceptance  of  certain  definitions  and 
tenets   is   the   necessary   foundation   of  the    Christian 


344  PAUL    OF   TARSUS. 

character.  What  if  oveiinastering  doubts,  honest  dis- 
abilities of  judgment,  make  men  decline  to  admit  cer- 
tain statements,  or  formulas,  or  presumed  facts  ?  What 
if  such  doubts  and  difficulties  are  met  by  stern  declara- 
tions and  angry  anathemas  ?  Is  it  not  possible  to  con- 
ceive that  men  may  be  alienated  from  a.  beneficent 
religion  by  the  harshness  of  its  advocates  ?  Has  it  not, 
unhappily,  been  the  case  that  Christianity  has  been 
rendered  distasteful  to  many  by  the  intemj)erate  sever- 
ity of  those  who  pretend  to  expound  it  ? 

The  time  must  come  in  which  the  teaching  of  Chris- 
tianity —  if  it  is  to  retain  its  hold  on  the  hearts  of  men 
—  must  ignore  differences  of  opinion,  or,  in  other  words, 
must  accept  the  fact  that  while  men  agree  closely  on 
the  ground  of  common  duty  and  common  action,  and 
are  willing,  nay  anxious,  to  make  duty  more  stringent 
and  actimi  more  heroic,  they  cannot  all  be  made  to 
think  alike.  When  this  teaching  is  current,  the  reunion 
of  Christianity  becomes  possible,  because  the  teacher 
has  reverted  t©  the  examples  which  the  Founder  of  the 
faith  has  given.  To  have  the  mind  of  Christ,  it  is  not 
necessary  to  busy  one's  self  with  abstract  and  dark  spec- 
ulations ;  but  it  is  necessary  for  each  to  do  the  work 
which  God  has  given  him  to  do,  and  thereafter  commit 
one's  self  to  Him  who  judges  righteously.  To  forget  the 
mind  of  Christ,  and  abandon  the  continuity  of  that 
great  office  which  His  life,  and  the  life  of  those  who 
conformed  to  Him,  began,  in  the  vain  struggle  after 
effecting  a  uniformity  of  opinion,  is  to  nail  Him  anew 
to  His  cross,  and  then  to  cast  lots  for  His  garment. 


THE  ASCETIC   TEMPER  — ITS  EVILS.      345 

The  fjiith  wliich  removes  mountains  is  not  that  which 
creates  stumbling-blocks,  but  it  is  the  zeal  which  is  un- 
sparing of  itself,  and  gentle  to  others,  the  love  which 
Paul  commends  as  the  greatest  and  most  enduring  of 
the  Christian  graces. 

That  morbid  asceticism  which  believed  that  motive- 
less and  inactive  self-torture  was  the  highest  form  of 
the  religious  life,  which  made  austerity  a  virtue,  and 
the  enjoyment  of  God's  blessings  a  sin,  has  probably 
passed  away  for  ever.  This  extravagant  theory  of 
perfection  was  imported  into  Christianity,  it  would 
seem,  from  Buddhism,  through  the  imitation  of  those 
devotees  who,  before  the  Christian  era,  congregated 
in  the  deserts  of  Lower  Egypt.  It  is  difficult  for  us  to 
conceive  the  process  by  which  men,  who  voluntarily 
lived  a  brutish  life  in  caves,  or  passed  their  existence 
on  lofty  pillars,  or  went  through  sharp  and  meaningless 
penances,  came  to  imagine  that  their  practice  was  the 
truest  service  that  could  be  rendered  to  God,  and  that 
they  were  the  peculiar  favorites  of  Heaven. 

This  strange  opinion,  derived,  it  is  believed,  from  the 
practice  of  rival  devotees  in  the  Brahman  and  Buddhist 
creeds,  once  completely  permeated  Christianity.  It 
formed  the  leading  characteristic  of  many  religious  or- 
ders. It  still  lingers  among  the  more  rigid  sectaries 
of  the  Roman  Church,  its  Carthusians  and  Trappists. 
It  has  peculiar  attractions  to  those  who  have  lived  a 
wdiile  in  reckless  pleasure.  It  is  really  akin  to  that 
Manichsean  doctrine,  which,  holding  that  matter  is  evil, 
has  divided  creation  between  a  beneficent  God  and  a 
]5* 


346  -  PAUL  OF   TARSUS. 

malignant  demon,  and  assigned  the  largest  and  most 
important  share  to  the  latter. 

In  a  modified  form,  it  has  developed  that  unhealthy- 
anxiety  about  personal  salvation  which  has  tormented 
so  many  good  men,  —  has  cast  a  blight  on  their  lives, 
has  benumbed  their  energies,  has  crippled  their  useful- 
ness. There  is  no  sadder  sight  than  that  of  a  tender 
and  loving  nature,  which,  giving  itself  up  to  this  dread 
of  God,  thereby  dishonors  His  love,  and  doubts  His 
mercy ;  which  creates  for  itself  a  valley  of  the  shadow 
of  death,  a  vale  of  misery ;  which  brings  the  terrors  of 
Sinai  into  the  region  of  the  Gospel.  But  Christianity 
has  no  claim  on  society  —  does  no  service  to  mankind, 
if  it  is  to  be  considered  only  as  the  machinery  for  sav- 
ing the  individual  soul,  least  of  all  if  that  soul  is  only 
to  be  saved  by  an  agony  of  dread.  Christ  did  not  live 
to  save  men  but  man.  They  who  are  Christ's  have  the 
same  purpose  before  them,  and  any  anxiety  about  their 
personal  safety  is  superfluous  and  debasing. 

Christianity  demands  that  man  should  do  good  to 
man  for  God's  sake,  and  for  no  other  object  besides. 
The  opportunities  are  multiform ;  the  claim  on  the  indi- 
vidual is  perpetual.  To  such  an  extent  only  as  is 
needed  for  the  satisfaction  of  this  great  function,  does 
rehgious  duty  assume  the  ascetic  spirit.  It  is  possible, 
when  men  resolve  on  such  an  employment  of  their 
powers,  that  they  have  to  forego  not  only  the  regular 
reward  of  their  labors,  but  the  legitimate  enjoyments 
of  life.  Christ,  who  expressly  repudiated  the  ascetic 
life  in  its  mildest  form,  —  drawing  a  contrast  between 


TRAITS   OF  THE   CHRISTIAN   TEMPER.     347 

• 
His  own  practice  and  that  of  the  Baptist,  —  contem- 
plates the  case  of  the  man  who  sacrifices  domestic 
happiness  to  a  high  sense  of  public  duty.  St.  Paul 
takes  credit  for  the  self-denial  with  which  he  adopted 
celibacy,  or  at  least  suspended  that  companionship 
which  he  considered  honorable  and  pure.  He  even 
urges,  in  his  anxiety  to  detach  his  followers  from  the 
temporary  dangers  of  their  calling,  and  to  accustom 
them  to  the  contemplation  of  Christ's  immediate  ad- 
vent to  judgment,  that  they  should  be  celibates  also. 
James,  the  head  of  the  communist  church  at  Jeru- 
salem, inveighs  against  the  rich,  only  as  forgetful  of 
duty  and  sunk  in  sensuality.  Now,  it  is  undoubtedly 
the  office  of  Christian  men  to  avoid  temptation,  and  to 
keep  their  passions,  appetites,  impulses,  in  check.  The 
favorite  metaphor  of  St.  Paul  is  that  of  the  palaestra. 
He  "  keeps  under  "  his  body,  —  the  word  being  equiv- 
alent to  that  which  Horace  employs  when  he  speaks 
of  Sybaris  as  bruised  by  the  exercise  of  the  gym- 
nasium. The  Christian,  to  use  a  modern  phrase,  is 
always  in  training — is  under  a  permanent  regimen 
and  diet. 

The  world  owes  every  thing  to  voluntary  labor.  The 
energy  which  pursues  knowledge  for  no  material 
profit,  and  which  eagerly  imparts  it ;  the  true  pleasure 
which  is  felt  at  conferring  lasting  and  general  benefits ; 
the  temper  which  gains  the  highest  satisfaction  by 
knowing  that  the  cause  of  humanity,  civilization,  prog- 
ress, has  made  a  firm  advance  by  reason  of  some  act 
which  has  strengthened  and  assisted  them ;  the  addi- 


348  PAUL    OF   TABS  US. 

tioii  to  the  knowledge  which  lightens  the  sorrows  of 
mankind,  and  extends  the  blessings  of  an  all-wise 
Providence  to  the  largest  possible  number  of  His  creat- 
ures, and  therefore  to  brutes ;  the  self-devotion  which 
visits  the  sick,  aids  the  poor,  builds  and  sustains  school, 
hospital,  and  a  pure  Church :  the  courage  and  gentle- 
ness which  check  oppression  and  disarm  anger;  the 
tenderness  which  tames  savage  nations,  and  reclaims 
desperate,  but  not  impenitent  vice,  speaking  peace  and 
pardon  to  them  who  are  fallen,  but  not  incurable ;  the 
love  which  svins  the  young,  and  thereby  confers  the 
most  exquisite  pleasure  on  those  who  gain  the  confi- 
dence and  receive  the  caresses  of  childhood,  —  are  ex- 
amples of  the  Christian  temper,  imitations  of  Him  who 
bade  little  children  run  to  His  arms,  and  who,  on  the 
eve  of  His  Passion,  with  the  sad  presentiment  of  His 
own  destiny,  and  the  sadder  sense  of  the  ruin  which 
brooded  over  the  beloved  city,  would  still  have  gathered 
her  people  to  Him,  as  a  hen  gathereth  her  chickens 
under  her  wings. 

The  greatest  victory,  however.  Which  the  spirit  of 
Christianity  achieves  is  obtained  when  it  permeates  the 
mind  of  the  statesman.  In  the  days  when  the  Gospel 
was  first  preached  there  was  no  opportunity  for  sketch- 
ing the  career  of  such  a  man,  and  the  Scriptures  of  the 
GosjDel  do  not  portray  undeveloped  characters.  But 
the  statesman  of  the  divine  commonwealth  is  contained, 
by  implication,  in  those  descriptions  of  Christian  worthi- 
ness which  Paul  loves  to  draw.  To  win  assent  by 
patient  and  persistent  vindication  of  the  truth,  to  wait 


THE   CHRISTIAN  STATESMAN.  349 

for  neither  honor  nor  reward,  to  use  power  wisely, 
never  desiring  it  and  never  wasting  it,  to  bear  miscon- 
struction patiently,  and  to  learn  vigilance  and  forbear- 
ance from  the  bitterness  of  hostile  criticism,  to  outlive 
calumny  by  perfect  simplicity  and  candor,  to  administer 
{iffairs  justly,  and  to  cherish  every  force  by  which  social 
morahty  and.  mutual  good-will  may  be  strengthened 
and  made  permanent,  to  make  no  compromise  between 
ambition  and  honor,  to  be  unmoved  and  just  amid  the 
din  of  rival  sects  and  clashing  interests,  to  defer  not  for 
an  instant  to  the  selfish  clamor  of  a  factious  mob, 
whether  the  mob  be  one  of  grandees  or  peasants,  of 
partisans  or  o^Dponents,  to  withstand  the  subtlest  of  all 
temptations,  the  gratification  of  a  sordid  patriotism,  the 
flattery  of  a  selfish  nationality,  to  be  prudent,  incor- 
ruptible, alert,  —  these  are  some  of  the  qualities  of  a 
Christian  statesman.  A  few  men  have  been  such  ex- 
amples, and  they  have  been  the  apostles  of  a  Divine 
wisdom,  have  left  ineffaceable  traces  on  the  history  of 
mankind,  have  brought  back  on  the  scarred  and  dis- 
torted visage  of  humanity  some  features  to  the  likeness 
of  God.  Man  can  give  them  no  reward  for  their  bene- 
fits; the  recomj^ense  of  their  labor  is  laid  up  in  the 
treasury  of  God.  Man  could  not  stimulate  them  to 
such  efforts  and  such  sacrifices  a§  they  make.  It  is  the 
Spirit  of  God  which  dwells  within  them,  and  by  which 
they  follow  the  great  Captain  of  man's  salvation,  like 
Him  being  made  perfect  by  suffering. 

The  man  who  counselled  the  avoidance  of  doubtful 
questions  in  the  reception  of  members  into  the  Christian 


350  PAUL    OF   TARSUS. 

brotherhood,  and  who  spoke  contemptuously  of  all  as- 
cetics, whether  they  were  the  emissaries  who  unset- 
tled the  Galatians,  or  the  punctilious  forerunners  of 
Gnostic  idealism,  was  not  likely  to  have  taken  part  in 
those  theories  which  have  made  conformity  in  religious 
opinion  the  most  essential  feature  in  the  Christian  char- 
acter, or  to  have  discovered  any  special  sanctity  in  un- 
meaning austerities.  According  to  the  simple  creed  of 
the  Apostolic  age,  there  is  one  God.  This  is  the  con- 
tribution of  i^ure  Judaism  to  the  Christian  Church. 
There  is  one  Christ,  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  This  Man  died 
and  rose  again.  He  is  the  Power  of  God,  the  Word  of 
God,  the  Redeemer  of  mankind,  the  j^resent  Saviour, 
the  perfect  Example,  the  future  Judge.  In  Him, 
through  Him,  for  Him  we  live,  w^ork,  suffer,  hope. 
Tliis,  St.  Paul  could  say,  is  my  gospel,  and  from  this 
teaching  I  derive  my  religion.  There  are  other  forms 
in  which  the  Gospel  is  preached,  but  if  they  preach  the 
Sj'irit  of  Christ,  I  am  indifferent  to  variations  in  the 
manner,  and  heed  not  hostility  to  myself.  "  Some, 
indeed,"  says  he  in  one  of  his  last  letters,  "preach 
Christ  enviously  and  contentiously,  some  generously. 
They  who  do  it  contentiously,  have  no  pure  purpose, 
for  they  think  that  they  will  make  my  chains  gall  me 
the  more.  They  who»do  it  lovingly,  know  that  I  live 
in  i)rison  to  defend  the  Gospel.  But  what  of  this? 
Ill  e\'ery  way  —  be  it  w^ith  a  sinister  or  an  honest  pur- 
pose —  Christ  is  announced,  and  this  is  and  shall  be 
matter  of  congratulation  to  me."  What  a  comment  on 
the  rivalry  of  sects !     How  naturally  does  the  writer  go 


PAUL'S  ATTITUDE   TOWARDS  HERESY.     851 

on  to  warn  his  beloved  Philippians  against  cavilling 
and  logomachies  —  the  perennial  curse  of  Christen- 
dom. 

The  danger  of  doctrinal  sin  is  made  of  little  account 
in  the  Pauline  religion.  There  are  traces,  indeed,  of 
the  idea,  that  misapprehension  as  to  theological  tenets 
is  an  offence,  or,  at  least,  a  danger.  There  were  men, 
according  to  the  second  pastoral  epistle,  who  enter- 
tained views  about  the  resurrection,  which  contravened 
the  habitual  teaching  of  the  Apostle.  There  were  men 
whom  the  Apostle  anathematized  in  his  wrath,  because 
they  renewed  the  yoke  of  Judaism,  and  frightened  the 
Gentiles  into  the  acceptance  of  superfluous  observances. 
There  were  conceited  visionaries,  who  prided  them- 
selves on  a  special  illumination,  on  a  knowledge  which 
puffed  them  up,  who  were  given  over  to  the  deadly 
delusion  of  spiritual  pride,  the  heretical  men  who  were 
to  be  twice  warned  and  then  avoided.  But,  of  the 
later  doctrine  which  harsh  creeds  have  eno-endered  — 
that  the  non-acceptance  of  ecclesiastical  definitions  is 
a  sin  against  God,  a  wicked  error,  an  act  of  treason 
against  the  Divine  majesty  —  there  is  no  trace.  The 
common  sense  and  sagacity  of  the  Apostle  would  have 
scouted  the  idea  of  those  jurists,  who,  having  recognized 
the  conception  of  conspiracy,  relbellion,  treason  against 
the  human  ruler,  have  applied  it  to  those  who  Avill  not, 
or  cannot,  accept  the  precedents  of  successful  polemics. 
Men  have  asserted,  that  the  result  of  an  attempt  to  de- 
fine the  transcendental  mysteries  of  Divine  Providence 
ought  to  be  as  plain  to  ordinary  minds  as  those  human 


352  PAUL    OF   TARSUS. 

laws  are  which  may  be  unjust,  but  are  certainly  intelli- 
gible, and  they  have  added  to  this  fallacy  another 
which  is  still  more  gross.  They  have  affected  to  con- 
sider that  a  misapprehension  of  the  Divine  nature  is  the 
same  sort  of  offence  as  that  which  seeks  to  overthrow 
the  authority  of  a  secular  ruler,  who  is  a  man  as  much 
as  the  malcontents  are ;  and  that  hesitation  as  to  allow- 
ing some  of  the  attributes  which  they  assign  to  an  om- 
nipotent God  is  identical  with  the  crime  of  seeking  to 
destroy  a  government  by  violence  or  fraud,  of  subvert- 
ing a  power  which  cannot  exist  and  continue  without 
weapons  of  defence.  Alas,  to  be  ignorant  of  His  benef- 
icence and  justice,  to  live  without  knowledge  of  Him, 
-is  no  matter  for  anger,  but  occasion  for  pity,  —  for  that 
compassion  which  the  strong  should  feel  towards  those 
who  are  weak;  the  wise  for  those  who  are  ignorant; 
the  rich  for  those  who  are  poor ;  the  child  whose  father 
and  mother  love  him,  and  whose  home  is  cheerful  and 
happy,  for  the  fatherless,  the  orphan,  the  destitute,  the 
homeless;  the  man  of  strong,  clear,  active  mind,  for 
the  hypochondriac  who  suffers  under  baseless  illusions. 
But  sometimes  the  armor  of  confident  assertion  is  the 
cloak  of  doubt.  Shall  we  admire  or  pity  the  audacity 
which  utters  the  famous  j)aradox  of  Tertullian, — 
"  Credo  quia  impossibile  est "  ? 

For  the  sin  of  the  ascetic,  Paul  mentions  to  dismiss  it 
with  disdain.  It  was  no  part  of  this  Apostle's  theory 
that  his  converts  should  go  out  of  the  w^orld,  —  that 
they  should  be  sour,  m6rtified,  recluse.  The  advice 
which  he  gives,  and  of  which  so  much  has  been  made, 


THE   SIN  HE  DENOUNCED.  353 

as  to  marriage,  is  given  for  temporary  and  special  rea- 
sons. Elsewhere,  lie  commends  the  connubial  state, 
and  reckons  among  the  signs  of  the  latter  times,  —  of 
the  days  of  wandering  spirits,  and  the  teachings  of 
.devils,  —  the  repudiation  of  marriage  and  those  aliment- 
ary restrictions  which  ascetics  have  always  insisted  on. 
There  is,  it  may  be,  some  benefit  in  the  subjection  of 
the  body  to  discipline  ;  but  l^iety,  religion,  is  of  univer- 
sal benefit,  for  it  conveys  with  itself  the  promises  of  the 
present  and  of  the  future  life. 

It  remains,  then,  that  the  sin  whicli  the  Apostle  de- 
nounced, and  against  which  he  uttered  his  warnings, 
was  that  against  the  Moral  Law,  —  such  sin  as  the  Jew- 
ish prophets  condemned,  and  made  the  object  of  God's 
wrath,  —  and,  in  particular,  the  sins  of  sensuality  and 
greed,  the  sins  of  a  reprobate  intellect.  The  details  of 
such  a  depravity  are  described  in  the  first  chapter  of 
the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  where,  in  accordance  with 
the  teaching  of  the  Hebrew  jurists,  the  tendency  to 
these  ofiences  is  connected  with  igjnorance  of  the  Beino- 
and  Providence  of  God,  —  with  the  absence  of  the 
religious  sense,  —  with  the  folly,  as  David  says,  w^  hich 
denies  God  in  the  heart.  So,  again,  it  is  the  flesh 
against  the  spirit,  —  the  animal  impulse  of  man  contra- 
vening and  degrading  the  diviner  element,  —  which 
leads  to  the  sin  which  dishonors  man.  In  one  remark- 
able passage,  the  Apostle  compares  the  logical  act  of 
appetite  with  the  logical  act  of  the  nobler  nature  of  the 
spirit,  and  notes  their  antagonism,  —  his  contrast  being 
probably  suggested  by  the  familiar  language  of  Aryan 


354  PAUL    OF   TARSUS. 

dualism.  Sin,  then,  is  partly  the  consequence  of  un- 
worthy conceptions  of  God,  partly  a  yielding  to  the 
temptation  which  is  perpetually  recurring  in  the  body 
of  this  death,  in  the  facile  obedience  to  an  imjDerious 
law  which  campaigns  against  the  law  of  my  intellect 
(the  origin,  according  to  Aristotle,  of  all  law),  and 
which  takes  me  captive  to  itself,  —  to  the  law  of  sin 
which  exists  in  my  body,  and  in  its  passions. 

This  contest  between  appetite  and  reason,  between 
the  flesh  and  the  spirit,  is  elaborated  in  the  Epistle 
to  the  Galatians.  "Walk  by  the  spirit,  and  you  will 
not  satisfy  the  desire  of  the  flesh.  The  flesh  has  its 
impulses  which  would  subdue  the  spirit,  —  the  spirit 
those  which  would  subdue  the  flesh.  These  contravene 
one  another,  and  so  you  do  what  you  do  not  wish  to  do. 
If  ye  are  led  by  the  spirit,  you  are  not  subject  to  a 
law ; "  or,  as  is  explained  a  little  afterwards,  when  the 
Apostle  has  sketched  the  vices  and  virtues  of  those 
contrasted  forces,  "there  is  no  law  against  those  who 
practise  the  latter."  Law,  be  it  ceremonial  or  munici- 
pal, is  directed  against  those  who  break  it,  and  has  no 
practical  existence  to  them  who  are  exempted  from 
obedience  to  a. ceremonial  code,  or  whose  conduct  is 
such  that  they  do  not  incur  the  penalties  of  municipal 
legislation. 

Whenever  the  Apostle  utters  his  warning  against 
sin,  and  enumerates  its  various  phases,  he  invariably 
reckons  unchastity  as  the  greatest  or  most  prominent  of 
vices.  The  extraordinary  impurity  of  social  life  among 
Romans,    Greeks,    Syrians,  —  the    shamelessness    with 


HIS    WARNING  AGAINST   UNCHASTITY.      355 

which  licentiousness  was  practised  and  avowed,  —  mny 
have  induced  the  Apostle  to  lay  great  stress  on  the 
necessity  for  purity  among  his  converts.  In  the  Epistle 
to  the  Corinthians  he  speaks  of  incontinence  as  specially 
degrading.  In  that  to  the  Thessalonians  he  urges  the 
necessity  of  keeping  the  body  pure,  in  contrast  to  Gen- 
tile practice.  But,  apart  from  the  immediate  effect  of 
this  particular  vice,  the  Apostle  knew  what  were  the 
associations  of  ancient  prostitution.  The  practice  was 
part  of  the  system  of  nature-worship.  Antioch,  where 
St.  Paul  resided  so  long,  was  notorious  for  its  dissolute- 
ness, for  the  openness  with  which  wantons  were  recog- 
nized and  patronized.  In  Corinth,  Paphos,  and  a 
hundred  other  cities,  prostitution  was  considered,  not 
merely  —  as  some  of  our  publicists  have  reckoned  it  — 
a  social  necessity,  but  a  culte,  an  act  of  worship.  The 
earlier  Scriptures  of  the  Old  Testament  allude  to  the 
women  who  lived  near  the  precinct  of  some  idol  shriue. 
The  story  of  Israel  and  Moab  bears  testimony  to  the 
close  connection  between  licentiousness  and  idolatry. 
For  this  reason,  fornication  is  commonly  used  in  the 
Old  Testament  as  a  synonyme  for  idolatry,  and  some- 
times in  the  New,  as  for  example  in  the  Revelation. 
As  the  Jewish  creed  grew  more  strictly  monotheistic,  it 
proscribed  with  peculiar  energy  any  jjractice  which  was 
associated  with  that  nature-worship  which  it  detested 
and  desj^ised. 

To  the  moralist,  sin  is  vice, — which,  as  far  as  its 
influence  extends,  wrecks  society.  Violence,  fraud, 
rapine,  endanger   the   institution   of   property;   licen- 


356  PAUL    OF   TARSUS. 

tiousness  insults  the  sacredness  of  home,  the  dignity  of 
woman,  the  instincts  of  paternal  fondness  and  care.  It 
is  not  because  the  effects  of  unchastity  are  less  mis- 
chievous than  those  of  lawlessness,  that  criminal  law 
does  not  take  cognizance  of,  or  punish  the  former,  but 
because  the  machinery  of  repression  or  punishment  is 
less  easy.  No  civilized  community  neglects,  however 
free  it  leaves  the  Press,  to  punish  those  Avho  sell  in- 
decent or  immoral  books,  pictures,  and  the  like.  Nor, 
were  it  possible  or  convenient  to  check  the  vice  to 
which  these  publications  pander,  in  the  interest  of 
society,  is  there  any  doubt  that  a  legislature  might  and 
would  use  the  forces  at  its  control  in  order  to  purify,  as 
it  does  to  protect  society. 

The  effect  of  sin  on  the  individual  is,  that  it  deadens 
the  religious  sense.  It  j^erverts  the  sight  of  God,  in- 
ducing the  man  to  frame  sucli  notions  of  the  Deity  as 
characterized  the  nature-worship  of  Greek,  Roman,  and 
Syrian.  God,  argues  the  Apostle,  had  made  Himself 
known,  —  the  invisible  verity  being  made  intelligible 
by  the  analogy  of  the  visible  creation  ;  as,  for  example, 
the  eternal  power  and  divine  majesty  of  the  Almighty. 
But,  though  the  heathen  world  knew  God,  its  inhabi- 
tants "  gave  Ilim  not  the  glory  and  praise  that  was  His 
due,  but  argued  themselves  into  folly,  so  that  they  were 
darkened  in  a  senseless  heart.  Calling  themselves  wise 
they  became  stolid,  and  transferred  the  glory  of  the 
unchangeable  God  to  some  image  of  changeable  man, 
or  to  that  of  bird,  beast,  or  reptile. "  Hence,  he  goes 
on  to  infer,  their  vices,  —  on  which    he  dwells   with 


FAITH  AND  PRACTICE.  357 

vehement  disgust,  concluding  witli  a  descrij^tion  of  the 
depravity  into  which  the  heathen  had  fallen,  and  the 
satisfaction  which  they  felt  in  their  depravity. 

The  sight  of  God  which  sin  perverts,  the  revelation 
of  God's  justice  which  is  made  in  the  Gospel,  and  which 
leads  to  an  ever-increasing  trust  in  God,  —  that  process 
from  faith  to  faith,  according  to  the  Hebrew,  a  formula 
of  growing  intensity,  —  is  no  mere  knowledge.  Men 
may  be  acquainted  with  every  thing  which  has  been  al- 
leged, proved,  accepted,  on  behalf  of  a  doctrinal  system, 
and  may  acquiesce  in  every  tenet  which  theologians 
have  affirmed, —  may  be  of  unimpeached  orthodoxy, 
—  may  dread  heresy  as  though  it  were  some  dangerous 
or  deadly  contagion,  —  and  still  be  far  removed  from 
the  apostolic  sight  of  God,  from  the  manifestation,  the 
revelation,  which  Paul  thought  the  choicest  gift  of 
the  Gospel  which  he  preached.  Nay,  a  precise  ortho- 
doxy may  be  coupled  with  those  very  vices  which  are 
denounced  in  the  Epistles  to  the  Romans  and  the  Gala- 
tians.  The  history  of  Christianity  can  supply  abun- 
dant illustrations  of  the  fact,  that  no  religious  system, 
however  positive  may  be  its  tenets,  is  any  guarantee 
against  that  laxity  of  practice  which  the  Apostle  speaks 
of  as  the  proof  of  a  reprobate  mind,  or  as  the  logic  of 
the  appetite,  or  as  the  works  of  the  flesh.  Faith,  as 
commonly  understood,  is  neither  the  life  of  Christ  nor 
the  sight  of  God.  And,  conversely,  if  the  sight  of 
God  and  the  life  of  Christ  are  the  highest  hopes  and 
the  best  pattern  which  can  be  before  the  mind  of  man, 
it  is  possible  that  heresy,  free-thought,  resolute  inquiry 


358  PAUL   OF  TARSUS. 

into  the  ground  of  our  belief,  may  be  no  bar  to  the 
imitation  of  the  hitter,  and  the  possession  of  the 
former.  The  sight  of  God  is  not,  in  the  economy  of 
Christ's  teaching,  reserved  for  the  learned  theologian, 
but  for  the  pure  in  heart.  In  this  particular,  the  Apos- 
tle's doctrine  does  not  swerve  from  that  of  the  Master. 
Man  may  become  the  temple  of  God,  but  the  building 
must  be  cleansed  for  the  Divine  indwelling. 

In  the  system  of  St.  Paul,  the  process  of  illumination 
and  reconciliation,  of  forgiveness  and  hope,  is  simple. 
To  trust  in  Christ,  to  believe  in  the  mercy  of  God,  is 
sufficient  for  pardon,  is  a  pledge  of  grace  given,  of 
mercy  vouchsafed.  The  symbol  of  this  trust  is  baptism 
into  the  name  of  Christ.  The  warranty  of  the  hopes 
which  baptism  affirms  is  the  Passion  of  Jesus.  The 
gospel  of  the  Apostle  contains,  as  has  been  said,  a  few 
facts,  and  one  simple  act  of  initiation.  Nothing  can  be 
more  brief  than  this  gosjjel  of  doctrine,  for  it  ascribes 
the  salvation,  the  regeneration,  the  reconciliation  of 
man  to  the  sublime  self-sacrifice  of  the  risen  Christ.  It 
is  stated  in  its  most  succinct  form  to  the  Philippian 
gaoler,  —  "  Trust  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  thou 
shalt  be  safe. "  In  the  symbolism  of  the  Alexandrian 
gloss  on  the  Jewish  covenant,  as  expounded  in  the 
Epistle  to  the  Hebrews ;  before  Christ  came  there  was 
a  vail  shutting  men  out  from  the  Shekinah.  The 
proof  that  God  was  there  was  affi^rded  by  the  occa- 
sional entrance  of  a  Jewish  priest.  He  came  and  the 
vail  was  for  ever  taken  away.  Every  one  has  a  right  to 
enter  now.    Salvation  is  no  longer  the  heritage  of  a  race, 


THE  RELIGIOUS   LIFE  A    GROWTH.        359 

it  is  the  right  of  all  the  families  of  the  earth.  Eagerly 
accepting  the  universality  of  the  Saviour's  mission,  the 
apostles,  who  treated  Christianity  in  a  catholic  spirit, 
were  satisfied  of  the  fact  that  He  has  invited  all  men 
to  the  mercy  of  God,  and  that  the  Covenant  of  Abra- 
ham is  extended  to  the  whole  human  race. 

But  when  the  convert  is  admitted  to  the  Gospel,  the 
Avork  of  grace  commences.  The  change  of  conversion 
is  vast,  — it  is  no  less  than  a  new  creation,  a  new  birth. 
But  it  would  be  rash,  irrational,  ruinous  to  suppose  that 
the  great  woik  is  achieved  in  the  instant  of  confession 
and  in  the  avowal  of  allegiance.  The  growth  of  the 
spiritual  man,  like  that  of  the  natural  man,  is  from 
babyhood  to  manhood.  The  work  of  the  Spirit  is 
solid  and  gradual.  Men  are  builded  ujd,  increase,  grow 
to  a  full  stature.  The  life  of  the  Christian  man  needs 
care  and  watchfulness,  self-denial  and  self-control.  The 
religious  change  is  one  of  slow  accession,  of  anxious 
and  continual  watchfulness.  It  could  not  be  effected 
but  by  the  aid  of  the  Divine  Spirit,  —  by  the  presence 
of  Christ,  —  by  the  perpetual  practice  of  Christian 
duty,  —  by  the  concurrence  of  the  will  of  man,  and 
the  help  of  God.  "  It  is  not, "  says  the  Apostle,  "  in  my 
presence  only,  but  in  my  absence  still  more,  that  I  in- 
sist on  the  rule  that  you  should  accomplish  your  own 
safety  with  fear  and  with  anxiety  ;  for  it  is  God  whose 
energy  effects  this  in  us,  that  we  should  will,  and  we 
should  show  our  energy  in  the  direction  which  pleases 
Him. "  St.  Paul  uses  the  same  emphatic  word  —  a 
word  for  which  philosophy  is  indebted  to  Aristotle  — 


360  PAUL    OF  TARSUS. 

to  show  that  the  will  of  God  and  the  w^ll  of  man  are 
simultaneously  operative  in  the  Christian  soul.  Man 
is  no  inert  matter,  but  without  God  the  man  can  do 
nothing. 

Each  man  is  aided  in  this  great  work  of  resieneration 
and  reconciliation  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  and  is  thereby 
renewed  in  the  likeness  of  the  Great  Father.  But  sur- 
rounding, combining,  pervading,  knitting  and  binding 
together  them  who  are  engaged  in  the  labor  of  the 
sj^iritual  life,  is  the  glorified  Christ.  He  begins  the 
redemption  of  the  individual,  by  constituting  these 
units  into  a  Church.  Man  cannot  live  in  a  religious 
solitude,  any  more  than  he  can  dwell  aj^art  from  the 
social  life  in  which  he  moves.  Christianity  is  a  fellow- 
ship, a  company,  a  community.  In  this  association,  no 
man  can  say  to  his  neighbor,  I  have  no  need  of  thee. 
The  aggregate  of  Christian  men  is  a  building,  in  which 
the  individuals  are  the  separate  stones,  a  body  of 
w^hich  they  are  the  separate  members.  Christ  is  the 
life  which  joervades  them,  by  which  they  are  mutually 
sensitive,  by  which  they  exist,  move,  grow.  "  We 
have,"  says  St.  Paul,  "  our  commonwealth  in  the  heav- 
ens. From  this  we  are  expecting  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  w^ho  will  transfigure  the  body  of  our  humilia- 
tion so  that  it  shall  take  the  shape  of  the  body  of  His 
glory,  in  accordance  with  the  living  energy  by  which 
He  can  marshal  all  things  under  Himself."  Then  the 
illumination  is  completed,  the  pardon  is  sure,  the  vic- 
tory is  won,  the  sight  of  God  is  everlastingly  obtained, 
and  the  mission  of  Christ  is  ended. 


DUTY   TO    WORK   FOR  HUMANITY.         361 

That  the  great  scheme  of  human  redemption  and 
moral  progress  should  fail  for  want  of  advocates  who 
can  win  assent,  and  gather  forces  for  the  battle  against 
seliishness  and  sin,  is  not  to  be  believed.  To  entertain 
this  doubt,  to  sit  with  folded  arras  while  the  coui-se 
of  humanity  goes  backward,  to  be  dismayed  at  the 
present,  to  despair  of  the  future,  is  the  highest  offence 
which  a  clear  conception  of  truth  can  commit  against 
duty.  "  Woe  to  me,"  said  Paul,  "  if  I  preach  not  the 
Gospel ;  to  do  it  is  no  cause  for  boasting ;  I  must  needs 
do  it."  To  decline  the  work  is  to  sin  against  God's 
Spirit,  to  refuse  Him  who  speaks,  to  enter  into  the 
peril  of  that  sin  which  is,  above  all,  inexcusable.  And, 
on  the  other  hand,  it  is  certain  that  they  wiio,  for  no 
other  purpose  than  that  of  doing  justly,  and  curing  the 
hardships  and  sorrows  of  life,  seek  the  good  of  man, 
will  find  that  they  are,  though  perhaps  unconsciously, 
the  truest  teachers  of  the  Gospel  of  mercy  and  grace, 
"though  Abraham  be  ignorant  of  them,  and  Israel 
acknowledge  them  not." 


16 


CHAPTER  X. 

"  I  ^HEY  who  have  busied  themselves  with  the  chro- 
-*-  nology  of  the  New  Testament,  generally  set  a 
period  of  about  thirty-three  years  between  the  time  at 
which  the  "  young  man  Saul,"  eager  to  vindicate  the 
Law,  set  out  for  Damascus,  and  that  at  which,  in  his 
last  imprisonment,  "  Paul  the  aged  "  declared  that  "  he 
had  fought  a  good  fight,  had  finished  his  course,  and 
was  now  ready  to  be  ofl?ered."  This  interval  had 
been  spent  in  founding  and  in  confirming  churches. 
The  Acts  of  the  Apostles  give  us  an  account  of  some 
among  Paul's  many  labors.  His  own  Epistles  supply  us 
with  a  little  further  infonnation.  But  the  narrative  in 
the  historical  work  is  imj^erfect,  even  where  it  professes 
to  state  the  fiicts,  and  is  silent  as  to  the  last  years 
of  Paul's  life.  The  letters  which  the  Apostle  wrote, 
were,  we  must  believe,  very  numerous.  His  care  of  all 
the  churches  certainly  led  to  frequent  communications 
with  them,  so  that,  even  at  a  comparatively  early 
period  in  his  career,  his  letters  were  reckoned  to  be 
weighty  and  vigorous.  But  only  a  small  number  of 
these  can  have  been  preserved.  His  labors  w^ere  inces- 
sant, and  he  was  always  seeking  to  occupy  new  ground. 
l>ut  we  hear  about  none  of  his  doino;s  fi-om  the  time 


NOT  A   SECT  BUT  A    COMMONWEALTH.    363 

in  which  he  rented  a  house  at  Rome,  —  six  years  before 
the  commonly  received  date  of  his  martyrdom,  —  to 
the  final  consummation  of  his  career,  when  he  stood, 
almost  friendless,  before  the  judgment-seat  of  Nero, 
and  was  looking  forward  to  his  rest  and  his  reward. 

During  this  vigorous  life  he  had  preached  the  Gos- 
pel over  the  Western  world,  avoiding  only  those  dis- 
tricts where  other  men  had  laid  the  foundation,  and 
renewing  by  letter,  when  absent,  the  teaching  which 
he  had  given  by  word  of  mouth.  Some  of  these  con- 
gregations must  have  kept  archives,  and  a  few  of  these 
archives  were  preserved  till  such  time  as  the  Jewish 
reaction  abated,  and  the  surviving  writings  of  Paul 
were  sought  after,  especially  by  the  Latin  Christians, 
in  order  to  develop  a  systematic  theology.  It  was  for 
this  object  especially  that  the  Epistles  of  Paul  were 
collected,  studied,  and  expounded.  But  nothing  was 
less  before  the  eyes  of  Paul  than  the  foundation  of 
a  school.  His  aim  was  to  establish  a  divine  com- 
monwealth, which,  dwelling  within  the  organization  of 
the  Roman  empire,  should  leaven,  purify,  and  finally 
reform  society.  The  universal  acknowledgment  of 
Christ  is  a  part  of  the  recompense  of  His  suffering. 
He  is  to  have  the  homage  of  every  knee  and  every 
tongue.  Such  a  result,  however,  is  impossible,  unless 
the  Gospel  of  Christ  is  capable  of  reaching  every  heart, 
and  instructing  every  mind.  Now,  nothing  is  more 
certain  to  hinder  this  universality,  than  a  hard  and 
dry  system  of  definitions  and  restrictions.  Hence  the 
Apostle  warns  men    against   these  refinements.     "  Do 


364  PAUL    OF   TARSUS. 

what  you  do  without  them,"  he  says  in  his  last  public 
epistle  —  that  to  the  Philippians.  "  Have  peace  among 
one  another,"  he  enjoins  in  his  earliest  epistle  —  that  to 
the  Thessalonians,  whom  he  speaks  of  as  an  example 
to  all  the  believers  in  Macedonia  and  Achaia. 

It  is  plain  that  justice  is  the  foundation  of  civil 
society,  and  that  the  essence  of  secular  justice  is  to 
grant  each  man  full  freedom  to  labor,  and  to  secure 
each  man  that  he  should  enjoy  the  fruits  of  his  labor, 
subject  only  to  the  condition  that  the  exercise  of  his 
faculties  shall  not  inflict  wrong  on  others.  Nor  is  it 
less  plain,  that  the  organization  of  civil  society  is  per- 
petually exposed  to  attack  on  that  side  which  forms  the 
most  vital  part  of  its  existence,  and  that  it  can  only  by 
perpetual  eftbrt  ward  off  force  and  fraud,  the  success 
of  which  is  fatal  to  its  being.  Government  exists  to 
do  justice,  though  the  decline  and  fall  of  nations  have 
been  due  to  the  fact  that  the  power  of  government 
has  not  only  not  been  employed  for  the  primary  object 
of  its  existence,  but  has  perpetually  aided  rapine  and 
oppression.  The  Platonic  Socrates  is  made  to  show 
that  any  theory  of  gov^ernment  which  warps  justice, 
even  in  appearance,  to  the  sustentation  of  particular 
interests,  contains  that  which  is  in  the  end  certain  to 
effect  the  dissolution  of  civil  society. 

The  profound  sympathy  of  Paul,  which  made  him 
suffer  with  any  distress,  and  be  indignant  at  any  offence 
which  his  disciples  endured,  suggested  a  striking  and 
exact  illustration  of  that  distributive  justice  which  con- 
stitutes the  key-stone  of  civilization.     He   bids  men 


THE   TRUE   THEORY  OF  SOCIETY.         365 

treat  each  other  as  members  of  the  same  physical  or- 
ganization, urging  that  injury  done  to  one  part  induces 
suifering  and  disease  on  the  whole.  Such  a  theory  of 
civil  government  corresponds  with  that  of  those  econ- 
omists v/ho  allege  that,  from  a  material  point  of  view, 
society  is  best  oif,  not  wdien  the  largest  amount  of 
wealth  is  collected,  but  when  the  largest  amount  of 
persons  live  in  affluence  or  comfort  by  means  of  labor 
naturally  or  spontaneously  distributed.  In  the  social 
and  economical  state  alike,  the  spontaneous  distribu- 
tion of  these  benefits,  which  industry  and  order  collect, 
is  of  more  profound  significance  than  the  circumstances 
wdiich  attend  on  their  production  or  collection.  In  the 
physical  body,  nature  efiects  this  distribution;  health 
being  the  state  in  which  such  an  equipoise  is  indicated 
or  afiected,  disease  an  abnormal  growth  or  a  local  reple- 
tion. In  the  Pauline  hypothesis  of  a^  perfect  society, 
the  rectification  of  a  wrong  is  not  due  to  the  clamor  or 
plaint  of  that  which  is  immediately  distressed,  but  to 
the  sympathy  felt  by  the  whole  of  society  towards  the 
sufiering  or  the  injured  part.  From  St.  Paul's  point 
of  view,  a  social  evil  sends  a  pang  through  the  whole 
body,  urging  it  to  take  note  of  the  disease  and  to  dis- 
cover the  remedy.  That  the  remedy  can  be  found,  and 
the  disease  subdued,  he  did  not  for  an  instant  doubt. 
To  ignore  the  disease,  or  to  deny  the  remedy,  is  to 
acquiesce  in  the  wreck  of  humanity. 

Conceive,  if  you  can,  a  public  conscience  so  keen  and 
tender  as  to  be  instantly  alive  to  the  moral  evils  which 
corrupt,  enfeeble,  blemish  those  powers  whose  unin- 


366  PAUL    OF   TARSUS. 

terrupted  action  designates  the  vigor  of  true  and  un- 
broken progress,  and  so  wise  as  to  instantly  busy  itself 
with  their  cure.  Imagine  men,  comprehending  that  the 
corrective  forces  of  public  morality  are  not,  except  in- 
directly, concerned  with  the  reformation  of  offenders, 
but  principally  with  the  purification  of  mankind  itself 
from  some  taint  which  it  has  ignorantly,  wilfully,  or 
carelessly  contracted.  Picture  a  society  busily  engaged 
in  finding  out  the  means  by  w^hich  poverty,  ignorance, 
vice,  selfishness,  can  be  chastised  or  healed,  not  because 
the  victims  of  those  morbid  growths  are  afliicted,  but 
because  society  itself  is  degraded  and  dishonored  by 
the  presence  of  such  calamities,  and  is  therefore  rest- 
less till  it  cures  or  alleviates  them.  Whenever  man 
begins  to  purify  the  society  in  winch  he  lives,  under 
the  stimulant  of  these  feelings,  and  from  these  motives, 
he  begins  to  construct  the  divine  commonwealth,  the 
perfect  man,  as  Paul  conceived  and  expounded  it. 
Well  w^ould  it  have  been  if  the  reformation  of  man 
had  but  been  continued  in  this  spirit.  The  utmost  that 
men  have  done  as  yet,  is  to  concede  a  right,  perhaj^s  no 
more  than  the  right,  of  complaint  to  the  sufferer.  But 
they  will  find  no  remedy  for  the  diseases  and  dei^ravity 
of  social  life,  till  they  recognize  that  the  w^orst  part  of 
the  case  is  the  influence  of  these  malignant  growths 
upon  the  health  of  humanity  itself,  and  perhaps  on  its 
very  life. 

It  is  not,  therefore,  Utopian  to  project  a  social  system 
which  shall  be  formed  and  governed  upon  the  principle 
that  vice  and  misery  must  be  obviated  in  the  interests 


HOLINESS  AND  HEALTH.  367 

of  society  itself.  Nor  is  it  visionary  to  conceive  a  force 
which  shall  so  permeate  the  common  life  of  men  as  to 
sustain  such  a  policy  when  it  has  once  been  adopted, 
and,  therefore,  form  an  obstacle  to  the  beginning  of 
that  which  demoralizes  and  degrades  all  in  the  deprav- 
ity of  a  part.  We  may  imagine,  with  perfect  reason- 
ableness, a  community  where  wrong  is  unknown,  and, 
therefore,  from  which  misery  is  banished.  No  excel- 
lence, either  of  the  State  or  of  the  individual,  is  im- 
practicable simply  because  it  has  hitherto  been  ideal, 
and  has  transcended  experience.  Paul,  who  avowed 
that  man  was  depraved,  contemplated  his  social  per- 
fectibility. 

Now,  whether  it  be  that  man  has  departed  from  the 
pure  original  in  which  he  was  once  created  —  as  is 
commonly  conceived,  —  or,  that  he  has,  conversely, 
made  some  progress  towards  the  perfection  which  may 
be  developed  in  the  future  by  the  gradual  growth  of  a 
wise  morality,  but  that  he  has,  historically,  no  higher 
origin  than  that  of  mere  animal  life,  —  it  is  clear,  on 
either  hypothesis,  that  society  has  hardly  attempted  to 
govern  itself  on  the  principle  which  has  been  adverted 
to,  —  that  of  righting  wrong,  and  checking  vice,  in 
consideration  of  its  own  safety  and  health.  It  is  also 
clear,  that  prodigious  heroism  is  needed  on  the  part  of 
individuals  who,  foreseeing  the  only  means  by  which 
society  can  be  regenerated,  seek  to  grapple  with  the 
evils  whose  ultimate  consequence  must  be  so  disastrous. 
Such  persons  have  been  violently  crushed,  or  merci- 
lessly ridiculed  at  best,  have  provoked  into  active  antip- 


368  PAUL   OF  TARSUS. 

athy  a  host  of  interests,  which  can  easily  get  credence 
for  the  fallacy  that  custom  is  nature,  or  that  an  habitual 
wrong  becomes  a  prescriptive  right.  And,  even  if 
this  angry  panic  of  imperilled  or  alarmed  self-interest 
be  wanting,  there  is  always  the  obstacle  of  inert  apathy 
which  calls  enthusiasm  a  madness,  and  would  rather 
indolently  shut  its  eyes,  than  rouse  itself  to  knowl- 
edge and  incur  the  anxieties  of  resolution. 

Paul  was  not  wanting  in  courage.  Testimony  to  his 
lofty  and  unshaken  ])erseverance  is  to  be  gathered  from 
the  suiferings  of  his  life.  He  is  still  unshaken  as  he 
contemplates  the  apparent  failure  which  saddened  his 
retrospect,  when,  deserted  by  his  friends,  he  had  the 
immediate  prospect  of  a  violent  death.  He  had  labored 
for  more  than  thirty  years,  and  all  those  in  Asia  — 
Asia,  which  had  been  the  principal  scene  of  his  ener- 
gies—  were  turned  away  from  him,  had  left  him  alone. 
His  career  is  an  example  of  the  trouble,  the  animosity, 
the  disappointment  which  attend  on  those  wdio  strive 
to  purify  the  world.  The  indomitable  vitality  of  a  true 
Christianity  has  rendered  it  impossible  that  the  career 
of  Paul  should  be  a  warning. 

But  Paul  did  not,  and  could  not,  attempt  to  grapple 
with  society  as  a  whole.  As  has  been  several  times 
observed,  he  believed  that  the  world  was  rapidly  ap- 
proaching its  dissolution.  There  was  some  reason  for 
this  belief.  Mankind  has  not  even  yet  recovered  from 
the  desolation  which  was  caused  by  the  Roman  Em- 
pire, and  from  the  destruction  of  ancient  civilization. 
That  empire  and  that  civilization  perished  by  their  own 


PAUL'S  IDEAL  SOCIETY.  369 

vices,  by  the  persistent  indifference  of  the  Imperial 
government  to  all  public  duty.  But,  even  if  the  Apos- 
tle had  anticipated  the  duration  of  the  world,  he  could 
not  have  directly  attempted  the  task  of  a  social  refor- 
mation in  the  Roman  Empire.  The  effort  would  have 
been  a  forlorn  hope.  There  was  risk  enough  in  the 
indirect  attempt,  —  risk  wiiich  any  but  the  boldest 
spirit  would  have  hesitated  to  run.  But  to  have  openly 
defied  the  power  of  Roman  conservatism,  would  have 
been  to  provoke  instant  destruction.  And  the  sacrifice 
would  have  been  as  fruitless  as  that  of  Savonarola. 

Hence  Paul  set  himself  to  work  to  construct  a  so- 
ciety within  a  society,  which  should  challenge  as  lit- 
tle attention  as  possible,  beyond  that  which  would  be 
accorded  to  the  blameless  and  virtuous  lives  of  its 
members.  Under  circumstances  w^hich  would  not  cause 
scandal  or  retort  upon  the  Christian  profession,  he 
counsels  his  disciples  to  ask  no  questions  for  con- 
science' sake,  to  go  into  general  society.  With  the 
same  purpose  he  dissuades  the  believing  wife  from 
using  the  right  of  divorce  against  the  unbelieving  hus- 
band, because  he  anticipates  that  the  latter  Avill  be  won 
over  to  the  Gospel  by  the  pure  and  scrupulous  life  of 
his  wife.  The  advice  marks  all  the  difference  between 
a  needless  and  offensive  j^rotest  against  the  conduct  of 
one's  neighbor,  and  a  rigid  regimen  of  one's  own  life 
and  action.  If  one's  own  reputation  for  consistency  is 
challenged,  the  Apostle  counsels  no  reticence,  justifies 
no  evasion,  permits  no  cowardice.  But  it  is  neither 
good  manners  nor  tact  to  blurt  out  one's  own  convic- 
10  *  X 


370  PAUL   OF  TARSUS. 

tions  in  any  comj^any,  or,  under  all  circumstances,  to 
perpetually  protest  against  whatever  one  sees  and  hears. 
It  was  the  vice  of  the  Christianity  which  followed  on 
the  Apostolic  Age,  or,  rather,  on  the  age  which  fol- 
lowed the  revival  of  Paul's  teaching,  for  the  professed 
Christian  to  court  persecution  by  indiscreet  and  su- 
perfluous avowals.  Hippolytus,  in  telling  us,  from  the 
Christian  side,  what  was  the  career  of  the  worthless 
Callistus,  —  whom  the  Roman  Church  subsequently 
elected  as  its  bishojD,  and  has  even  canonized,  —  is 
evidence  of  the  eagerness  with  which  an  adventurer 
affected  martyrdom ;  and  Lucian,  from  the  heathen  side, 
narrates,  in  the  history  of  Peregrinus,  how  devotees, 
whose  reputation  was  doubtful,  wantonly  affronted  the 
habits  of  society  in  the  third  century  after  Christ.  The 
man  who  intrudes  such  crude  beliefs  on  his  own  age 
becomes  the  orthodox  persecutor  of  a  time  when  his 
beliefs  are  accej^ted.  When  Gibbon  says  that  the  \dr- 
tues  of  a  clergy  are  more  dangerous  to  civil  society 
than  their  vices  are,  he  is  thinking  of  those  virtues  of 
courage  or  rashness  which  simply  aid  the  ambition,  or 
affirm  the  egotism  of  those  who  exhibit  them.  It  is 
not  clear  whether  Paul  knew  the  parable  about  the 
good  seed  and  the  tares,  but  it  is  clear  that  his  advice 
is  quite  in  accordance  with  the  teaching  of  Christ.  It 
is  doubtful  whether  he  had  ever  heard  of  those  disci- 
ples who  wished  to  call  down  fire  fi'om  heaven,  but  it 
is  certain  that  he  was  not  of  that  spirit  which  Christ 
rebuked.  It  is  manifest  that  he  was  all  things  to  all 
men,  if  haply  he  might  gain  some,  —  that  he  was  indif- 


HIS   OBJECT  SOCIAL   REFORMATION.       371 

fereiit  to  those  who  preached  Christ  of  contention,  pro- 
vided only  that  Christ  was  preached,  —  that  he  was 
thoroughly  of  the  mind  of  Christ,  who  prayed  that 
His  disciples  might  —  not  be  taken  out  of  the  world, 
but  —  be  preserved  from  the  evil  of  the  world. 

The  Gospel  which  Paul  preached  was  not  intended 
to  govern  men,  but  to  influence  them.  It  was  not  in- 
tended to  confer  authority  on  its  teachers,  advocates, 
disciples,  but  to  lay  duties  on  them.  "  The  Son  of 
Man  came  not  to  be  the  object  of  service,  but  to  serve, 
and  to  give  His  life  as  a  ransom  for  many,"  is  said  by 
Christ  when  he  was  enforcing  the  great  tenet  of  Chris- 
tianity,—  that  personal  power  and  influence  are  to  be 
dedicated  to  public  service.  The  object  of  the  Chris- 
tian life  is  to  restore,  to  regenerate  mankind ;  not  to 
assure  the  individual  of  his  personal  salvation,  in  the 
first  instance  at  least,  but  to  assist  in  the  reconstruction 
of  society.  The  reward  of  this  labor  is  an  eternal 
identity  in  the  midst  of  assured  felicity,  "  a  place  in 
the  kingdom  of  God,"  a  share  in  that  "  which  has 
been  prepared  by  Christ "  on  behalf  of  them  who  wait 
for  Him.  And  in  order  that  as  many  persons  as  pos- 
sible may  be  included  within  the  number  of  those  who 
have  this  great  object  before  them,  Paul  was  prepared 
to  do  away  with  every  hindrance  and  obstacle  in  the 
way  of  union.  What  the  difliculties  were  with  which 
this  plan  was  beset,  has  been  repeatedly  stated  in  these 
pages.  They  were  not  obviated  during  Paul's  life ; 
they  recur  in  other  forms  after  the  obstacles  which 
Paul  sought  to  remove  had  become  unimportant,  when 


372  PAUL    OF  TARSUS, 

the  Christian  sects  reproduced  the  temper,  after  aban- 
doning the  tenets,  of  conservative  Judaism.  The 
Church  of  Christ  is  not  a  society  bound  together  by  a 
written  constitution,  or  by  a  set  of  formal  rules,  but 
by  the  work  and  the  fruit  of  tlie  Spirit. 

Every  epistle  of  Paul  bears  witness  to  his  convic- 
tion, that  the  victory  of  Christianity  is  to  be  found  in 
the  holiness  of  its  adherents.  Having  commented  on 
the  variety  of  powers  and  gifts,  which  the  followers  of 
the  faith  may  possess  and  exercise,  he  lays  down  in  the 
Epistle  to  the  Romans  a  series  of  injunctions  on  the 
details  of  the  Christian  life.  "  Let  your  love  be  gen- 
uine. Loathe  the  evil,  cling  to  the  good.  Into  your 
mutual  brotherhood  carry  the  feelings  of  natural  affec- 
tion. Show  that  grace  of  courtesy  which  makes  a  man 
defer  his  own  dignity  to  that  of  his  fellow.  Be  diligent 
in  the  business  on  your  hands,  be  eager  in  the  spirit 
of  your  profession,  serve  the  occasion  which  lies  before 
you,  feel  joy  in  your  hopes,  constancy  in  your  trials, 
confidence  in  your  prayers.  Be  generous  to  the  wants 
of  those  who  hold  your  own  belief,  be  eager  to  practise 
friendly  intercourse  with  all,  meet  those  who  harm  you 
with  kind  words,  with  blessing  and  not  with  cursing. 
Give  the  sympathy  of  cheerfulness  and  sorrow  to  those 
who  need  it.  Have  unanimity  with  one  another,  avoid 
haughtiness  of  spirit,  condescend  to  be  gentle  with 
men  of  lowly  station.  Do  not  think  of  nothing  but 
yourselves,  do  not  retaliate  evil.  In  your  general  inter- 
course with  mankind,  be  anxious  for  a  good  reputation, 
and,  if  it  be  possible,  for  your  part,  be  peaceable.     Do 


HIS  IDEA    OF  SECULAR  AUTHORITY,       373 

not  seek,  my  beloved,  to  exact  satisfaction,  but  give 
place  to  anger,  according  to  the  scripture,  '  Vengeance 
is  mine,  I  will  punish  wrong,  saith  the  Lord.'  If  thine 
enemy,  then,  hunger,  feed  him ;  if  he  thirst,  give  him 
drink,  —  for  by  doing  so  thou  shalt  heap  coals  of  fire 
on  his  head.  Let  not  evil-doing  vanquish  you,  but  over- 
come it  by  the  good  you  do." 

Such  is  a  paraphrase  of  the  conduct  which  Paul  com- 
mends as  the  means  by  which  the  Gospel  may  be  ap- 
proved of,  and  its  influence  extended.  It  will  be  seen 
that  these  injunctions  apply  principally  to  the  mutual 
intercourse  of  Christian  men,  and  to  their  dealings 
with  the  world  around  them.  They  contain  the  quin- 
tessence of  common  sense.  They  are  followed  by  a 
general  rule  of  obedience  to  secular  authority,  and  an 
acquiescence  in  the  course  of  Providence,  as  indicated 
in  the  existing  authority  of  the  civil  power.  The  argu- 
ments on  which  this  acquiescence  is  based  are  these :  — 
The  Apostle  urges  that  there  is  no  reasonable  ground 
on  which  Christian  men  can  be  apprehensive  of  that 
power  which  the  magistrate  wields.  Law  is  for  the 
wrong-doer,  not  for  the  just,  whom  Law  virtually 
respects  and  defends.  Next,  the  civil  administration 
of  affairs  is  part  of  the  moral  government  of  the 
world,  and  therefore  resistance  to  authority  is  resistance 
to  the  implied  Providence  of  God.  Lastly, —  and  this 
is  most  to  the  purpose,  —  the  order  of  the  world  is 
temporary,  and  will  not  long  endure.  "  The  niglit  is 
far  advanced,  the  day  is  near. "  In  immediate  prox- 
imity to  that  great  change  which  will  follow  instantly  on 


374  PAUL   OF  TARSUS. 

the  appearance  of  Christ,  it  is  idle  to  disturb  one's  self 
with  the  merely  secular  question  of  human  government 
and  law. 

Had  Paul  anticipated  the  prolonged  duration  of  the 
visible  world,  had  he  foreseen  that  the  course  of  things 
would  have  remained  unchanged  for  centuries  after  his 
own  life  and  work  were  finished,  he  could  not  have 
varied  the  advice  which  he  gives  to  the  Christians 
whom  he  instructed.  Had  he  contemplated  a  time  in 
which  absolutism  would  give  way  to  popular  govern- 
ment, and  the  Christian  man  would  not  only  be  invited, 
but  would  be  bound  to  exercise  his  judgment  on  ques- 
tions of  public  policy,  and  to  take  part  in  the  administra- 
tion of  atiairs,  he  would  still  have  counselled  obedience 
to  law  and  authority,  —  even  if  the  authority  were  self- 
ish and  the  law  unjust.  Better  have  a  bad  administra- 
tion than  anarchy,  better  partial  law  than  genei*al 
confusion.  But  to  suppose  that  he  would  have  coun- 
selled indifference,  or  passive  acquiescence  in  tyranny 
or  wrong,  is  to  misapprehend  the  whole  tenor  of  his 
teaching.  Christianity  is  a  perpetual  protest  against 
evil,  whether  it  be  temporal  or  spiritual,  whether  it  be 
that  of  ruler  or  subject,  whether  it  be  crime  or  sin.  If 
it  have  the  opportunity  of  using  the  force  of  civil 
authority  conjointly  with  its  moral  influence  to  do 
what  is  just  and  right,  it  will  not  hesitate  to  employ 
such  powers  as  Providence  has  bestowed  on  it.  Men 
do  not  put  off  their  civil  duties  to  the  generation  in 
which  they  live,  because  they  profess  to  believe  in  a 
religion  which  promises  them  certain  future  benefits. 


PAUL'S  PRIDE  IN  BIS  RACE.  375 

They  will  still  "  walk  in  wisdom  to  those  who  live  with- 
out their  action,  and  will  pay  the  price  that  it  is  worth 
for  the  use  of  the  occasion  which  lies  before  them."  It 
is  true,  that  the  best  force  which  Christianity  can 
exercise  is  to  be  found  in  the  example  of  life  which  the 
Christian  spirit  affords.  But  the  man  who  held  that 
Christian  men  shall  judge  the  world,  —  shall,  in  the 
language  of  the  Rabbinical  scliools,  judge  angels,  and 
much  more  what  belongs  to  the  interests  of  this  life,  — 
would  certainly  not  have  precluded  Christianity  from 
aiding  natural  morality  and  justice  with  all  the  forces 
at  its  disposal. 

Besides,  the  mind  of  every  Jew  who  cherished  any 
recollection  of  his  nation's  glory,  its  jDrestige  and  its 
mission,  was  occupied  with  the  memory  of  that  ancient 
time,  when  the  prophet  stood  before  the  king,  and,  if 
need  be,  rebuked  him  for  falling  away  from  the  cove- 
nant of  Israel,  and  the  commandment  of  God.  Paul 
never  forgot  the  greatness  of  the  race  from  which  he 
sprung;  never,  even  when  he  had  been  forcibly  severed 
from  both  parts  of  it,  —  from  the  Jews  of  the  old  faith, 
for  his  unpardonable  conversion ;  from  the  Jews  of  the 
Apostolic  College,  for  his  equally  unpardonable  indiffer- 
ence to  ritual,  —  did  his  tenderness  for  the  ancient 
people  of  God  fail  to  break  forth,  did  his  pride  of  race 
forsake  him.  It  is  not  without  design  that  he  lays  so 
much  emphasis  on  the  prophetic  office,  implying  by  it 
the  function  of  bearing  testimony  to  the  truth  of  God 
before  an  unbelieving  and  demoralized  world ;  as  the 
prophets  of  old  did  from  the  days  of  Samuel  to  those 
of  Malachi. 


376  PAUL    OF   TARSUS. 

The  Jewish  prophet  is  the  representative  of  the  prin- 
ciple, that  the  forces  of  government  are,  and  should  be 
subordinated  to  justice,  mercy,  and  conscience;  and 
that  no  office,  however  high,  is,  or  ought  to  be  out  of 
the  reach  of  reproof  or  correction.  Armed  with  the 
Word  of  God,  the  prophet  is  —  as  we  are  told  by  Jere- 
miah—  a  defenced  city,  an  iron  pillar,  and  brazen  walls 
against  king,  prince,  priest,  and  people.  A  high  office, 
but  one  full  of  danger  to  him  who  fills  it ;  for  Jeremiah, 
though  constantly  the  counsellor  of  king  and  people,  is 
frequently  in  great  peril  on  account  of  his  far-sighted 
candor,  —  most  of  all,  at  the  hands  of  dishonest  rivals, 
who  prophesied  smooth  things,  and  deceived  the  people 
with  the  hopes  of  safety  or  impunity.  It  was  in  a  spirit 
like  that  of  a  Hebrew  prophet,  —  a  Jeremiah,  a  Micah, 
or  an  Amos,  —  that  Paul  stood  in  the  presence  of  Felix, 
and  reasoned  with  him  on  justice,  and  self-restraint, 
and  a  future  judgment,  till  the  adventurer  and  man  of 
pleasure  trembled  before  his  prisoner.  In  the  same 
manner  Paul  ai-gued  with  the  younger  Agrippa,  though 
with  less  success,  since  he  only  extorted  from  the  king 
an  ironical  comi)liment. 

It  must  not,  liowever,  be  forgotten,  that  the  proj)]iet 
of  old  addressed  such  a  monarch,  a  prince,  a  priest,  and 
a  people,  as  —  whatever  were  the  short-comings  in  the 
practice  of  each  —  professed  allegiance  to  the  law  of 
Moses.  Even  Israel  had  not  really  revolted  from  God ; 
only  from  David  and  the  worship  at  Jerusalem.  The 
proplust  of  Israel  does  not  reproach  king  and  peo}jle  for 
the  dissent  which  reared  the  chapels  in  Dan  and  Bethel, 


ATTITUDE   OF   THE   OLD  PROPHETS.        377 

but  for  thje  rebellion  which  led  them  to  worship  Baal 
and  Ashtaroth  in  the  place  of  the  God  of  their  fathers. 
Here,  except  during  the  dynasty  of  Ahab,  there  was, 
at  least,  a  nominal  acceptance  of  the  national  religion ; 
and  the  prophet  —  though  he  incurred  frequent  risk  for 
the  boldness  of  his  manner,  and,  occasionally,  for  the 
inferences  which  his  denunciations  suggested  —  had 
nothing  to  fear  on  account  of  the  matter  of  his  speech. 
Elijah,  Micaiah,  Elisha,  are  menaced  or  punished  for 
their  attitude  to  the  king,  not  for  their  religion ;  and 
the  false  prophet,  Zedekiah,  who  urged  Ahab  to  his  de- 
struction, employed  the  common  prelude  to  the  pro- 
phetic utterance,  —  "  As  the  Lord  liveth."  So,  also, 
Jeremiah  declares,  —  "  Then  the  Lord  said  unto  me,  the 
prophets  prophesy  lies  in  My  name ;  I  sent  them  not, 
neither  have  I  commanded  them,  neither  spake  unto 
them."  This  hypocrisy  did  not  render  these  time- 
servers  less  bitter  in  their  treatment  of  the  true  mes- 
senger, but  it  acknowledged  that  his  mission,  like  theirs, 
was  in  the  name  of  the  God  of  Israel,  and  that  he  was 
justified  in  speaking  openly  before  king  and  priest. 
Had  the  office  of  Paul  fallen  in  times  like  those  of  the 
Hebrew  prophet,  he  would  have  dealt  as  largely  with 
the  political  circumstances  of  his  day  as  his  predecessors 
did,  as  boldly  as  he  himself  spake  before  Ananias  and 
the  Sanhedrim. 

The  teacliing  of  St.  Paul  is  as  precise  when  he 
touches  on  the  internal  life  of  the  Christian.  Keenly 
alive  to  the  reality  of  sin,  occasionally  using  language 
about  it  which  strongly  savors  of  the  dualism  which 


378  PAUL    OF   TABS  US. 

was  adoi^ted  by  the  stricter  Gnostics ;  firmly  holding 
that  the  beginning  of  deliverance  is  the  purchase  which 
Christ  has  made  of  the  enslaved  soul  by  the  j^rice  of 
His  Passion ;  the  lesson  which  he  reads  his  disciples  is, 
in  the  highest  degree,  practical.  He  would  have  them 
look  perpetually  to  the  law  of  their  mind,  their  con- 
science, the  Spirit  of  Christ  which  inhabits  them,  and  to 
gather  a  rule  of  life  from  its  guidance.  He  is  perfectly 
plain  spoken  about  the  vices  which  he  condemns,  —  the 
sensual  and  selfish  practices  which  he  saw  everywhere 
about  him,  and  of  which  he  says,  that  they  who  permit 
the  growth  of  these  habits  shall  not  inherit  the  kingdom 
of  God.  "The  fruit  of  the  Spirit  is  love,  gladness, 
peace,  forbearance,  gentleness,  kindliness,  trust,  good 
temper,  self-control,"  he  tells  us  in  the  Epistle  to  the 
Galatians.  "  Put  on,  then,"  (he  says  to  the  Colossians,) 
"as  elect,  holy,  beloved  of  God,  hearty  compassion, 
gentleness,  modesty,  good  temper,  forbearance."  He 
has  advice  to  give  to  husband  and  wife,  to  parent  and 
child,  to  master  and  servant,  to  men  as  members  of 
churches,  to  individuals  as  engaged  in  the  earnest  strug- 
gle of  the  Christian  life.  "My  exhortation,  brethren, 
is,"  says  he  in  the  first  of  his  epistles,  "  that  you  re- 
prove the  unruly,  that  you  comfort  the  low-spirited, 
assist  the  weak,  be  forbearing  to  all.  Take  heed  not  to 
retaliate  evil  for  evil,  but  always  follow  after  what  is 
good  to  each  other  and  to  all.  Be  always  glad.  Pray 
regularly.  Give  thanks  on  all  occasions,  for  this  is 
God's  will  in  Christ  Jesus  on  .  your  account.  Do  not 
put  out  the  light  of  the  Spirit.     Do  not  make  scorn  of 


CHRISTIANITY  AFFIRMS  EQUALITY.      379 

teaching.  Test  every  tiling,  and  hold  what  is  worthy. 
Abstain  from  any  kind  of  evil."  Similar  lessons  of 
moral  virtue  are  given  to  the  Ephesians,  —  if,  as  some 
have  doubted,  the  letter  which  goes  under  this  name 
was  intended  for  the  Church  of  Ephesus,  —  and  are 
scattered  up  and  down  every  epistle.  A  holy  life,  a 
blameless  demeanor,  a  gentle  temper,  a  winning  man- 
ner, are  the  means  by  which  Paul  would  have  every 
man  use  the  gift  which  is  bestowed  on  him,  and  do  his 
part  in  effecting  the  perfection  of  humanity. 

Christianity  recognized  the  corruption,  imperfection, 
weakness  of  man's  moral  nature,  and,  withal,  saw  that 
this  infirmity  not  only  impaired  the  progress  of  the 
individual,  but  hindered  the  development  of  society. 
It  discerned  that  the  regeneration  of  man  was  to  be 
effected  by  the  sacrifice  of  man,  and  it  discovered  the 
original  of  this  sacrifice  in  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  These 
two  facts  constitute  the  basis  of  this  religion.  Further- 
more, and  by  implication,  Christianity  affirmed  the 
fundamental  equality  of  all  men,  equality  in  the  neces- 
sity of  an  atonement  and  a  mediation,  equality  in  the 
right  to  both.  It  acknowledged  neither  sacerdotal  nor 
secular  privilege,  for  its  highest  officer  is  a  preacher  or 
minister.  As  its  advocacy  is  so  lofty  a  self-abnegation, 
and  as  obedience  to  its  tenets  is  so  thoroughly  spiritual, 
it  was,  and  ever  is,  absolutely  separated  from  that 
nature-worship,  which  destroyed  the  civilization  it 
attempted  to  influence,  and  which,  under  one  form  or 
other  of  materialism,  has  survived  its  earliest  manifesta- 
tions.    As  it  was  intensely  sympathetic,  it  was  driven 


380  PAUL    OF  TARSUS. 

into  antagonism  towards  that  Gnostic  particularism 
which  offered  its  devotee  |1e:'iection,  by  the  contempla- 
tion of  a  wisdom  which  might  be  achieved  by  culture 
and  knowledge,  but  which  never  sought  to  regenerate 
or  benefit  the  world. 

It  is  by  means  like  these  which  have  been  recounted, 
that  Paul  contemplated  a  general  leavening  of  society 
by  the  genius  of  Christianity.  He  knew  —  who  had 
better  personal  experience  of  the  fact  ?  —  that  a  reso- 
lute and  wise  spirit  is  certain  to  attract  attention  and 
win  allegiance.  For  there  is  at  least  this  consolation  to 
those  who,  being  credited  with  disinterestedness,  seek 
to  impress  their  opinions  upon  their  fellow-men,  that 
even  though  a  very  moderate  amount  of  freedom  may 
be  given  to  those  who  strive  to  reform  society,  the 
effect  of  every  lofty  j^urpose  is  rendered  more  intense 
and  lasting  by  reason  of  its  exceeding  rarity.  Even 
those  who  are  sunk  in  sloth,  sensuality,  and  selfishness, 
are  attracted  by  the  energy  which  disdains  their  pleas- 
ures and  purposes,  and  shaj^es  out  for  itself  some  novel, 
but  beneficent  end.  The  only  real  resistance  which 
earnestness  and  activity  meet,  is  that  of  being  con- 
fronted with  an  antagonist  resolution,  which  is  equally 
persevering  and  determined.  A  strong  will  can  be 
withstood  only  by  collision  with  another  will,  whose 
weapons  have  been  tempered  by  the  same,  or  by  an 
equally  skilful  armorer.  To  such  an  energy  as  that  of 
Paul  there  was  no  antagonism,  either  in  the  sluggish- 
ness and  ignorance  of  popular  idolatry,  or  in  the  subtle 
but  nerveless  refinements  of  ancient  philosophy.     His 


NO   SUCCESSOR    TO  PAUL   LIKE  HIM.       381 

tenets  interpreted,  methodized,  and  modified,  perme- 
ated ancient  civilization  rapidly.  But,  unhappily,  the 
master-builder  had  no  true  successor.  His  mantle  fell 
on  no  one.  No  Elisha  obtained  a  double  share  of  the 
Christian  prophet's  spirit. 

No  successor  of  St.  Paul,  no  disciple,  no  companion 
is  known  to  us  as  having  labored  like  him,  or  as  having 
written  like  him.  With  the  exception  of  Luke,  none 
of  his  associates  in  the  ministry  have  even  been  canon- 
ized. There  are  other  compositions  of  the  Apostolic 
Age,  which  have  never,  or  only  temporarily,  been 
admitted  into  the  Scriptures  of  the  Isew  Covenant. 
There  are  others  which  may  have  been  written  by 
those  who  had  heard  the  apostolic  teachings.  But 
they  are  wholly  inferior  to  those  relics  which  were  col- 
lected and  compiled  into  the  volume  of  the  New 
Testament.  The  schools  of  the  prophets  provided  a 
succession  of  teachers  from  the  days  of  Samuel  to  those 
of  the  restoration,  and  during  six  centuries  the  same 
teaching  was  proclaimed  with  unabated  vigor  and  spir- 
ituality. But  the  Scriptures  of  the  New  Testament 
are  concluded  within  a  brief  epoch,  and  are  concluded 
abruptly.  One  successor  of  the  Apostle  —  Clement  of 
Rome  —  is  a  faint  reflection  from  the  man  of  Tarsus, 
speaks  neither  with  his  authority  nor  with  his  fulness 
and  depth.  It  is  not  difficult,  even  if  we  look  at  the 
facts  from  no  supernatural  point  of  view,  to  discover 
why  the  Church,  when  it  framed  its  canon,  and  when  it 
had  decisively  admitted  the  authority  of  Paul,  treated 
him  as  eminently  inspired ;    for  no  teacher  of  Chris- 


382  PAUL    OF   TABSUS. 

tianity  ever  possessed  so  great  a  genius,  none  was  ani- 
mated by  so  intense  a  religious  sense,  or  enlightened  by 
such  profound  sagacity,  and  endowed  with  such  admi- 
rable tact. 

It  will  be  curious,  perhaps  instructive,  to  consider,  in 
concluding  this  estimate  of  Paul  and  his  times,  what 
would  have  been  the  consequence  had  other  men, 
equally  gifted  with  the  Pharisee  of  Tarsus,  succeeded 
him  in  the  conduct  of  the  Church;  and  what  would 
have  been  the  attitude  of  such  a  man  as  he  was,  if  he 
were  to  appear  among  us  now, —  if,  according  to  the 
flmcy  which  was  prevalent  among  many  theorists  of  his 
age,  the  spirit  of  Paul  were  to  re-animate  some  human 
body,  and  to  guide  anew  some  human  will. 

The  Christology  of  Paul  might  have  been  progres- 
sive. The  epistles  of  Paul  say  nothing  of  the  birth  or 
childhood  of  Christ.  They  assign  him  no  miraculous 
origin ;.  they  sj^eak  of  Him  as  merely  a  descendant  of 
the  stock  of  David.  The  lanouao^e  of  these  writino-s 
implies  that  the  perfection  of  Christ  was  finally  ef- 
fected at  His  death  and  resurrection,  —  that  it  was 
the  recompense  of  His  perfect  self-sacrifice.  The  criti- 
cal passage  in  the  First  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians,  from 
which  it  appears  that  the  dignity  of  Christ  was  a  devel- 
opment, and  His  ofiice  one  which  would  ultimately  be 
superseded  by  the  Almighty  Father,  when  its  work 
was  completed,  indicates  that  Paul  had  by  no  means 
attempted  that  harmony  between  Tritheism  and  Mo- 
notheism, which  tasked  the  energies  of  the  Nicene 
Fathers,  and  which  has  finally  been  accepted  by  the 


SIMPLICITY  OF  HIS   CHRISTOLOQY.        383 

general  voice  of  Christendom.  Minute  and  laborious 
search  into  the  epistles  proves  nothing  more  than  a 
general  acquaintance,  on  the  part  of  Paul,  with  the 
spirit  of  Christ's  teaching,  and  gives  no  idea  of  his 
having  been  informed  of  those  details  which  are  found 
in  all  the  gospels,  and  particularly  in  the  last.  He  is 
thoroughly  acquainted  with  the  moral  perfection  of 
Jesus;  he  affirms  the  completeness  with  which  the 
Lord  satisfies  the  Messianic  hope,  and  vindicates  His 
claim  to  being  the  Founder  of  the  Gospel,  and  of  the 
kingdom  of  God.  He  asserts  that  Christ  is  not  only 
the  power  of  God,  and  the  wisdom  of  God  —  i.e.,  that 
He  satisfies  the  conditions  under  which,  according  to 
Jewish  teaching,  God  is  manifest  in  the  flesh,  — but  that 
He  has  become  to  us  wisdom  from  God,  justice,  purifica- 
tion, redemption.  He  is  the  source  of  all  hope  and 
strength.  But  Paul  never  forgets  that  while  there  is 
one  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  there  is  one  God. 

Still,  it  does  not  follow  that,  as  time  passed  on,  and 
the  intense  belief  in  the  humanity  of  Christ,  and  the 
nearness  of  His  second  coming  grew  fainter,  Paul  might 
not  have  developed  more  fully  that  theory  of  the  na- 
ture of  Christ  which  was  first  debated  by  the  Gnostics, 
and  ultimately  settled  by  the  Alexandrian  theosophists. 
The  Eastern  mind  was  thoroughly  impregnated  with 
the  idea  of  emanations  from  God.  The  Western  was 
accustomed  to  apprehend  the  incarnation  of  God  in 
man.  The  union  of  these  two  conceptions  may  have 
been  the  inevitable  consequence  of  a  religion  which  as- 
signed the  most  exalted  functions  to  its  Founder  and 


384  PAUL    OF   TARSUS. 

its  Yictim.  As  Paul  lived,  the  breach  between  his 
teaching  and  Judaism  becaine  wider.  Thus,  had  his 
spirit,  his  wisdom,  his  quick  appreciation  of  what  was 
necessary  to  the  scheme  of  Christianity,  been  continued 
in  his  successors,  it  is  possible  that  the  monotheistic 
tenets  which  are  comprised  in  his  epistles  might  have 
been  modified,  or  developed  even  into  the  Athanasian 
symbol. 

But  of  this  we  may  be  sure.  Paul  would  never  have 
mistaken  faith  for  belief —  the  trust  in  Christ  and  God 
for  any  mental  assent  to  definitions  of  opinion  and 
statements  of  fact.  With  him  Christianity  was  in- 
tensely social  and  personal,  and  therefore  never  could 
have  become  dogmatic  and  logical.  If  he  had  admit- 
ted these  formularies  of  belief,  he  would  have  treated 
them  as  matters  of  secondary  importance,  as  posi- 
tions which  are  inevitably  and  invariably  obscure,  as 
doubtful  disputations,  as  attempts  to  know  the  mind 
of  God,  which  is  inscrutable,  as  imperilling  that  other 
knowledge  which  man  may  possess  —  that  of  the  mind 
of  Christ.  He  would  have  discouraged  any  investiga- 
tion, the  practical  side  of  which  is  not  manifest,  whose 
solution  is  no  aid  to  the  Christian  life.  He  would  have 
been  still  more  dissatisfied  with  these  inquiries,  if  he 
found  that  they  were  rending  the  Church  into  frag- 
ments, —  that  they  were  exposing  it  to  the  derision  of 
the  heathen,  —  that  they  were  preventing  that  quiet 
and  steady  leavening  of  society  with  a  high  sense  of 
public  and  private  duty,  wdiich  it  was  the  mission  of 
the  Church,  in  Paul's  eyes,  to  achieve. 


NO   PERSECUTOR  NOR  ICONOCLAST,        385 

Again,  a  man  whose  theory  of  Christianity  was  so 
earnest  and  so  practical  would  have  discountenanced 
any  persecution  on  the  ground  of  mere  opinion.  It 
was  not  to  be  expected  that  a  Jew  would  have  had  any 
respect  for  the  caricatures  of  God  which  the  heathen 
worshipped,  or  would  fail  to  connect  the  depravity  of 
the  ancient  world  with  that  debased  idea  of  the  Divin- 
ity which  was  popularly  entertained.  The  history  of 
his  own  race,  and  the  history  of  other  races  proved,  or 
seemed  to  prove,  that  a  false  religion  and  a  low  moral- 
ity are  reciprocally  cause  and  effect.  Paul  knew  that 
the  revolution  of  the  Maccabees  was  a  reaction,  as  well 
against  the  tendency  to  Greek  idolatr}^,  as  it  was  against 
that  impulse  towards  Syrian  sensuality,  which,  as  is 
plainly  enough  seen  from  the  book  of  Sirach,  infected 
Jewish  manners.  Still,  Paul  contents  himself  with 
strongly  expressing  his  convictions  on  the  connection 
between  a  false  religion  and  general  immorality.  But 
he  preaches  no  crusade  against  the  former.  He  is  no 
iconoclast.  He  does  not  counsel  his  disciples  to  affront 
the  devotions  which  they  witnessed,  any  more  than  he 
himself  did  those  of  Athens.  No  one  would  have 
condemned  more  strongly,  more  energetically,  than  he 
would  have,  the  mad  fury  of  Cyril,  or  have  denounced 
moi-e  indignantly  the  murder  of  Hypatia.  There  were 
men  in  his  day  who  erred  concerning  the  faith,  —  who 
made  shipwreck  of  it ;  and  Paul,  believing  that  phys- 
ical suffering  raises  the  moral,  and  purifies  the  spiritual 
sense,  invokes,  in, the  Hebrew  phrase  of  deliverance  to 
Satan,  some  physical  evil  on  them,  that  they  may  be 

17  T 


PAUL  OF   TARSUS. 

chastised  into  abandoning  their  profone  avowals.  But 
he  never  identified  himself  with  Satan,  or  with  Satan's 
function. 

It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  Paul  w^as  indilFerent  to 
discipline.  An  ecclesiastical  society  can  no  more  en- 
dure the  presence  of  notorious  offenders  against  the 
conditions  of  its  moral  being,  than  a  civil  society  can 
neglect  to  chastise  or  coerce  criminals.  But  Paul 
counsels  the  avoidance  of  such  persons  rather  than 
their  formal  exclusion  from  the  Church.  Public  notice 
must  indeed  be  taken  when  the  scandal  is  flagrant ;  but 
the  penitent  is  to  be  restored  upon  submission.  He 
could  not  have  countenanced  the  proceedings  of  those 
who  wished  to  brand  the  weakness  or  timidity  of  the 
lapsed  after  the  Decian  persecution,  any  more  than  he 
could  have  advised  the  rashness  which  provoked  that 
onslaught.  The  discipline  of  an  ecclesiastical  organi- 
zation, he  would  have  argued,  is  a  means  to  an  end,  — 
that  end  being  the  approval  of  the  Gospel  in  the  sight 
of  men,  and  the  conversion  of  those  w^hom  Christ  came 
to  save.  To  aToid  the  appearance  of  evil,  to  be  scru- 
pulously exact  in  the  fulfilment  of  human  duties, — 
wdiich  is  as  much  the  law  of  God  as  it  is  of  man,  — 
ought  to  be  instinctive  in  every  Christian  community. 
Hence  the  avoidance  of  such  persons  as  compromise 
the  reputation  of  the  Christian  brotherhood  is  only  an 
act  of  self-preservation.  But  discipline  is  much  more 
easily  effected  by  the  gentle,  sometimes  silent,  rebukes 
of  wise  men,  or  by  just  public  opinion,  than  it  is  by 
law  and  verbal  regulations.     Paul  trusted  more  to  his 


CHURCH  AND   STATE    GOVERNMENT.       387 

own  presence  for  the  correction  of  faults  in  practice  at 
Corinth,  than  he  did  to  any  code  of  statutes  which  he 
might  draw  up.  He  had  to  found  a  church,  —  not  to 
compile  a  written  constitution.  The  commission  which 
he  had  received,  his  call  to  the  apostolate,  mignt  oe 
vouchsafed  to  other  men,  who  might  continue  his  work 
in  his  spirit. 

He  would  have  been  totally  indifferent  to  forms  of 
ecclesiastical  organization.  Various  forms  of  govern- 
ment may  equally  secure  fi-eedom  and  order  both  in 
Church  and  State.  What  is  to  be  deprecated  is  that 
fanatical  adherence  to  any  form  of  government  under 
which  men  seek  to  force  their  habits  on  the  life  of 
others.  What  is  to  be  learnt  from  such  a  fenatical 
adherence,  is  that  individuals  are  able  to  seek  and  find 
their  own,  not  the  general  or  public  good,  in  every  form 
of  government.  We  can  gather  from  the  Second  Epis- 
tle to  the  Corinthians,  that  there  were  men  who,  within 
that  particularly  democratic  church,  huckstered  the 
word  of  God ;  for  St.  Paul's  term,  which  we  translate 
"corrupt,"  alludes  as  much  to  the  petty  manner  in 
which  the  great  office  of  man's  redemption  was  treated, 
as  to  the  adulteration  with  which  these  men  had  dis- 
guised its  tenets.  The  reform  of  a  church  government 
may  be  necessary.  Its  institution  may  have  been  rad- 
ically vicious,  its  conduct  may  have  stereotyped  the 
faults  of  its  origin.  But  he  is  a  very  bad  judge  of 
human  nature,  and  knows  very  scantily  the  history  of 
the  process  by  which  human  nature  may  be  perma- 
nently bettered,  who  believes  that  changes  in  the  form 


388  PAUL    OF   TARSUS. 

of  an  administration  are  organic,  and  therefore  may  be 
considered  final.  Least  of  all  is  this  the  case  with  a 
church,  which,  to  be  faithful  to  that  by  which  it  con- 
sists, must  depend  for  its  true  vitality  on  moral  —  can 
hardly,  except  it  be  bent  on  suicide,  trust  to  external 
—  forces.  In  Church  and  State,  that  is  the  healthiest 
condition  in  which  they,  who  having  accepted  or  al- 
lowed a  form  of  government,  and  who  are  clearly  alive 
to  their  duties  as  members  of  a  religious  or  civil  polity, 
are  indifferent  to  the  details  of  the  constitution  under 
which  they  live. 

It  has  been  stated  above,  that  Paul  discerned  in  the 
low  morality  of  the  age  through  which  he  lived,  and 
in  the  degrading  conceptions  which,  as  he  saw  every- 
where, men  entertained  of  God,  a  reciprocal  counec- 
tion.  But  unhappily,  a  neglect  of  public  and  private 
duty,  an  indifference  to  natural  morality,  and  a  habit  of 
low  and  degrading  vice,  are  not  peculiar  to  heathen- 
dom. Such  vices  were  witnessed  during  the  prophetic 
age.  There  is,  indeed,  no  reason  to  believe  that  Paul 
w^as  imperfectly  acquainted  w^ith  those  parts  of  the 
Hebrew  Scriptures  in  w^hich  the  deeds  of  a  corrupt 
society  in  Judah  and  Israel  are  stigmatized  and  de- 
nounced. The  transgressions  of  the  two  kingdoms  were 
precisely  those  which  have  been  committed  in  times  of 
prosperity  and  wealth,  and  even  in  those  of  adversity 
and  suffering,  when  men  become  effeminate  and  licen- 
tious, insolent  and  hard-hearted.  That  the  rich  should 
oppress  the  poor,  that  the  strong  should  prey  on  the 
weak,  that  wealth  and  power  should  be  employed  for 


PERPETUAL  NEED   OF  THE  REFORMER.     389 

selfish  and  base  ends,  for  low  and  coarse  pleasures,  are 
contingencies  to  be  expected,  for  tliey  have  pei-petu- 
ally  happened.  But  the  corruption  of  society  consists 
in  the  applause  with  which  such  malversations  are 
witnessed,  in  the  acquiescence  or  congratulation  with 
which  vice  is  recognized  or  commented  on. 

There  are  no  grounds  on  which  to  infer  that  human 
nature  has  been  materially  changed  since  the  day  in 
which  Amos  testified  against  the  depravity  of  the  Is- 
raelite nobles,  and  Paul  drew  his  inferences  from  the 
corruptions  of  the  Roman  world,  though  the  Syrian 
kingdom  and  the  military  empire  have  passed  away. 
Whatever  may  be  the  origin  of  those  personal  and 
selfish  impulses  which  debase  the  man  if  they  are  un- 
checked and  gratified,  they  are  still  the  same  as  in  the 
days  of  the  Syrian  prophet  and  the  Christian  Apostle, 
have  the  same  consequences,  need  the  same  remedies. 
It  cannot  be  denied  that  the  world  has  made  vast  mate- 
rial, much  moral,  progress,  but  the  work  of  maintaining 
the  latter,  not  less  than  the  former,  has  to  be  continually 
renewed  in  each  generation  of  mankind.  The  labor 
of  jDcrpetuating  the  highest  moral  law,  or,  in  the  lan- 
guage of  the  New  Testament,  the  kingdom  of  God  and 
His  Christ,  is  even  more  difiicult  than  that  of  trans- 
mitting to  posterity  the  conquest  which  man's  intelli- 
gence has  made  over  the  material  world ;  because  the 
inductions  of  science,  though  arrived  at  with  great 
difficulty  and  after  long  research,  are  communicated 
easily,  since  they  can  be  easily  verified  ;  while  the 
infusion  of  the  divine   law   into  the  individual  mind 


390  PAUL   OF   TARSUS. 

demands  exactly  as  much  pains  now  as  it  did  when  a 
pure  morality  and  a  spiritual  religion  first  asserted 
themselves  on  behalf  of  civilization  and  progress. 

Perhaps,  if  any  well-informed  person  were  asked, 
What  are  the  chief  difficulties  which  a  preacher  and 
apostle  like  Paul  would  meet  with  were  a  mission  like 
his  to  recommence  at  the  present  day  ?  he  would  an- 
swer that  they  would  be  found  in  the  attitude  in 
which  religion  and  science  stand  to  each  other.  He 
would  say,  that  there  has  long  been  a  breach  between 
them,  and  that  the  breach  is  gradually  widening,  that 
their  relations  are  ordinarily  those  of  avowed  hostility, 
—  at  best,  of  cold  and  hollow  courtesy.  He  would 
point  to  the  alienation  of  the  inductive  sciences  from 
theology,  to  the  scepticism  with  which  even  the  j^hilos- 
ophy  of  consciousness  treats  every  thing  which  is  supra- 
sensuous.  He  would  observe  that  there  is  an  active 
and  increasing  school  of  thinkers  who  have  assigned 
its  distinct  place  in  the  history  of  human  thought  to 
the  supernatural  or  religious  movement ;  who  assert 
that  this  phase  of  the  human  mind  has  now  become  an 
exploded  fiction,  and  that  it  is  destined  never  again  to 
influence  any  high  intelligence.  He  would  add,  that, 
to  the  foremost  minds  of  the  age,  the  reign  of  law  had 
commenced  ;  that  this  is  the  philosophy  of  the  definite, 
while  the  philosophy  of  the  infinite  is  transcendental 
and  unreal.  He  would  conclude  that  the  deference 
which  is  still  paid  to  religious  belief  is,  on  the  part  of 
those  persons,  transitional  and  politic  ;  that  it  is  partly 
due  to  the  unwillingfness  with  which  such  men  would 


RELIGION  AND    SCIENCE.  391 


provoke  interests  which,  however  indefensible  they  are, 
are  yet  jDowerful,  and  partly  to  the  fact  that  they  con- 
sider it  superfluous  to  attack  that  which  will  one  day 
or  other  collapse  by  the  gradual  decay  of  its  founda- 
tions. 

Much  of  this  is  apparently  true.  But  no  man  who 
has  ever  busied  himselfj  though  cursorally  and  super- 
ficially, with  the  facts  of  human  life,  can  fail  to  see  how 
far  man  is  from  having  arrived  at  even  a  moderate 
standard  of  justice  and  goodness,  even  under  the  most 
favorable  circumstances.  Nor  will  he  fail,  also,  of  dis- 
covering that  the  prospect  there  is  of  elevating  the 
moral  nature  of  the  individual,  and  of  progressively 
purifying  society,  does  not  consist  in  the  development 
of  knowledge,  or  in  the  control  which  man  has  gained 
over  the  forces  of  the  physical  universe.  He  will  see 
that  it  has  been  by  the  self-devotion  of  earnest  and 
patient  men  that  a  generation  has  been  purified,  and 
that  it  is  by  the  continuity  of  these  moral  forces  that 
the  work,  once  begun,  can  be  maintained  and  extended. 
Now,  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  no  motive  except 
the  religious  sense  (by  which  is  understood  the  prac- 
tice of  virtue  and  holiness,  for  the  sake  of  a  Being  who 
is  absolutely  good  and  absolutely  holy),  has  ever  sup- 
plied the  perseverance  necessary  for  this  labor  of  bet- 
tering mankind.  Every  religion  must  have  its  martyrs, 
the  kind  of  martyrdom  varying  with  the  difficulties 
which  have  to  be  overcome.  And  there  is  too  much 
reason  to  believe,  that  much  of  the  hostility  which 
exists  between  science  and  religion  is  not  due  to  the 


392  PAUL   OF   TARSUS. 

fact  that  they  are  incompatible,  but  to  the  manner  in 
which  the  professional  advocates  of  the  latter  have  met 
the  inductions  of  the  former. 

In  the  hands,  at  least,  of  a  man  like  Paul,  the  diffi- 
culty could  not  be  capital.  The  difference  between  the 
secularism  of  the  Mosaic  system,  and  the  spiritualism 
of  the  prophetic  teaching,  is  far  greater  than  that  be- 
tween the  theology  of  Paul  in  his  epistles,  and  such 
a  harmony  as  he  would  try  to  effect  between  the  deduc- 
tions of  modern  science  and  the  fundamental  tenets  of 
his  gospel.  He  would  have  taken  the  fact  of  sin,  of 
human  depravity,  of  which  there  is  too  mournful  and 
too  general  a  proof,  without  troubling  himself  with  its 
origin.  He  would  have  made  no  more  stir  about  the 
cosmogony  of  3Ioses  tlian  Philo  did,  and  would  have 
recognized  the  hand  of  God  in  science  as  he  did  in  nat- 
ural morality,  as  he  did  in  the  order,  as  far  as  he  under- 
stood it,  of  the  physical  universe.  He  would  have 
experienced  no  difficulty  in  admitting  the  proofs  which 
geology  gives  of  the  vast  duration  of  the  world.  He 
would  even  have  allowed,  comparatively  speaking,  the 
eternity  of  matter,  because  he  could  have  induced  upon 
it  the  i^lastic  power  of  a  Divine  intelligence,  which 
creates  by  one  method  of  law  as  much  as  by  any  other. 
He  would  have  easily  dispossessed  his  language  of  those 
phrases  which  imply  a  physical  heaven ;  have  discovered 
his  new  creation  in  conditions  apart  from  locality ;  and 
perhaps  have  rejoiced  in  the  prospect  which  science 
offers  of  the  cognition  of  infinite  space  and  endless 
worlds. 


EI 8   THEORY  OF  SALVATION  393 

For,  it  must  be  repeated,  the  characteristics  of  "the 
Pauline  gospel  are  a  few  facts,  none  of  which  conti-adict 
human  experience,  and  in  many  particulars  obtain  its 
support.  He  holds  that  man  is,  and  has  been,  saved  by 
suffering ;  and  that  the  progress  of  humanity  is  due  to 
the  unbought  and  unpaid  diligence  of  high  and  persist- 
ent well-doing.  He  affirms  that  the  beginning,  and 
well-nigh  the  whole  of  this  work  was  done  by  One,  in 
whom  the  power  and  the  wisdom  of  God  were  immeas- 
urably manifest;  and  that  it  is  by  the  Spirit,  and  in 
the  indwelling  of  this  Personage,  that  the  residue  of 
man's  appointed  work  is  to  be  completed.  How  this 
work  has  been  done,  and  must  be  done,  is  often  ex- 
pounded, and  need  not  be  repeated.  How  the  agent  is 
aided  and  consoled  is  equally  affirmed.  That  the  ser- 
vice done  to  man  is  paid  by  the  perpetual  conscious- 
ness of  the  benefactor,  —  or,  in  other  words,  that  the 
life  of  such  a  person  is  not  lost  in  death,  —  is  a  matter 
of  natural  belief,  and  of  natural  justice.  The  assistance 
which  this  belief  gives  towards  the  construction  of 
society,,  and  the  aid  which  it  affords  to  the  regenera- 
tion of  humanity,  is  of  such  profound  significance,  that 
its  importance  is  well-nigh  a  test  of  its  truth.  And 
over  all  this  system  of  lofty  moral  philosojjhy,  and  gen- 
tle catholic  religion,  is  the  wise,  the  loving,  the  benefi- 
cent Father,  who  claims  the  homage  of  His  children's 
labor;  who  has  given  them  for  their  guidance,  their 
safety,  their  example,  their  hope,  their  stay,  the  object  . 
of  their  trust.  His  first-born  Son,  their  Brother  and 
their  Lord,  —  to  watch  over  their  work,  to  aid  His 
17* 


394  PAUL   OF  TARSUS. 

Providence,'to  be  with  them  always,  even  to  the  end. 
Such  a  gospel  is  intensely  probable,  prodigiously  strong, 
profoundly  consolatory.  If  it  cannot  be  proved  to 
demonstration,  it  is  certain  that,  were  it  fully  accepted, 
it  would  work  without  flaw  or  slij),  and  would  realize 
the  dream  of  the  most  sanguine  optimist.  If  Christi- 
anity be  not  the  light  of  the  world,  it  is  because  the 
world  is  still  lying  in  darkness. 

Nor  would  such  an  apostle  as  Paul  have  had  much 
more  difiiculty  in  dealing  with  that  other  hindrance  to 
Christianity,  which  is  derived  from  the  impatient  ob- 
jection, that  it  fails  to  meet  misery,  suffering,  injustice, 
wrong.  The  answer  is  instant,  —  It  is  no  ftiult  of  the 
Christian  spirit,  it  is  the  fault  of  those  who  will  not 
accept  and  obey  it.  The  gospel  of  Paul  is  not  a  com- 
munistic dream,  but  it  is  hard  work  and  mercy ;  honest 
labor  and  patience.  For  no  words  can  surpass  in  ex- 
haustive force  those  in  which  he  describes  the  spirit 
which  should  animate  a  Christian  society,  when  —  deal- 
ing with  the  extraordinary  gifts  which  the  Christians  of 
Corinth  had,  or  believed  they  had  —  he  tells  them  and 
us  what  is  the  force  and  what  is  the  working  of  love. 
It  is  sufficient  to  say,  that  the  language  rivals  that  of 
the  great  Master  Himself  It  is  the  loftiest  poetry,  the 
most  exalted  morality,  the  purest  religion,  the  most 
consummate  wisdom.  It  is  no  marvel  that  Paul,  when 
he  sums  ujd,  in  superlative  manner,  his  magnificent 
wishes  for  the  grace  and  power  of  his  Corinthian  breth- 
ren, utters  his  thanks  to  God  for  so  indescribable  a  gift 
as  that  which  he  prayed  might  be  the  character  of  all. 


NO  FOUNDATION  BUT  CHRIST.  395 

His  heaviest  task,  beyond  doubt,  would  not  have 
lain  in  the  objections  which  science  and  misery  might 
make  to  the  sufficiency  of  his  teaching,  and  in  the 
answer  which  he  might  give  to  their  doubts  or  to  their 
wants,  but  in  the  dull,  heavy  obstacle  of  that  selfish, 
sensual,  sordid,  self-interest  which  is  the  Antichrist  of 
the  Pauline  gospel.  But  who  can  trust  himself  to  de- 
scribe it,  and  why  seek  to  picture  that  which  is,  and  will 
be,  the  manifest,  the  perpetual  enemy  of  mankind  ? 

What,  then,  is  the  hope  of  the  Divine  common- 
wealth? It  does  not  consist  in  a  new  revelation,  for 
the  moral  progress  of  humanity  is  bound  up  with  the 
princii3le  which  forms  the  foundation  of  Christ's  death, 
of  Paul's  life,  of  the  life  of  all  who  have  done  true  ser- 
vice to  mankind.  It  does  not  require  the  promulga- 
tion of  a  new  code,  for  the  tenets  of  Christian  morality 
are  rather  exhaustive  and  exact  than  novel.  That 
there  is  no  foundation  but  Christ,  —  that  is,  that  society 
is  constructed  on  the  basis  of  self-sacrifice,  —  was  dimly, 
but  certainly,  seen  by  Plato,  who  commits  the  govern- 
ment of  his  ideal  state  to  men  whose  life  is  to  be  one 
of  unceasing  toil  and  self-denial,  endured  from  the  pro- 
found conviction  that  they  are  developing  their  own 
highest  nature,  by  spontaneous  and  diligent  service  to 
man.  But  in  the  Pauline  teaching  it  is  asserted,  that 
to  labor  on  this  foundation  is  the  duty  and  good  of 
every  man,  —  that  each  can  and  must  contribute  his 
share  of  work  to  the  mighty  edifice,  and  give  such  work 
as  will  stand  the  test  of  the  severest  trial  to  which 
work  can  be  put.     This  gospel  is  as  new  as  yesterday, 


896  PAUL    OF   TARSUS. 

because  it  is  conterminous  with  the  necessities  of  hu- 
manity, —  because  it  can  and  should  still  exert  its 
forces  as  long  as  "the  perfect  man"  is  inchoate  and 
undeveloped. 

To  many  men,  indeed,  Christ  is  not  risen.  He  is  still 
in  the  grave  to  them;  still  garrisoned  by  the  soldiers 
who  are  set  to  watch  the  body ;  still  a  wasted  energy  — 
a  dead  power.  For  the  significance  of  His  resurrection 
is  the  commencement  of  His  kingdom,  —  not  only  to 
each  heart  that  believes  in  Him,  and  trusts  in  Him,  and 
seeks  communion  with  Him,  and  feels  his  presence ; 
but  to  the  race  of  man,  which  is  still  wrestling,  in  its 
long  agony,  with  the  forces  which  seek  to  debase, 
degrade,  oppress,  misuse  it.  When  the  preacher  bids 
those  who  are  smitten  down  by  the  coarse,  hard  hand 
of  wrong  and  iniquity,  to  raise  their  eyes  to  Him  who 
is  lifted  up  —  to  open  their  ears  to  His  Gospel,  he  often 
speaks  to  dim  eyes  and  deaf  ears,  —  to  hearts  hardened 
by  misery,  —  to  men  who  say  or  think,  What  is  this 
Christianity  which  you  preach  to  us  ?  how  does  it  deal 
with  the  toils  of  our  life  ?  how  has  it  influenced  those 
who  profess  to  have  governed  human  society  by  its 
precepts?  He  dwells,  you  tell  us,  in  the  midst  of  his 
worshippers.  But  His  law  is  as  far  as  ever  from  being 
the  guide  of  life,  —  is  still  treated  as  Utopian,  —  is-  un- 
fulfilled, unacknowledged.  If  he  be  the  power  of  God, 
and  the  wisdom  of  God,  how  is  it  that  the  power  is  not 
exercised,  the  wisdom  not  obeyed  ?  What  a  mockery, 
they  say,  is  this  world  of  Christendom  !  what  a  phrase ! 
what  a  deception !     It  hardly  protests  against  the  evils 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  HUMAN  LIFE.         397 

it  pretends  to  cure.  To  us,  Christ  is  a  history,  a  re- 
mote event,  not  a  present  and  a  living  energy. 

The  Gospel  of  Chiist,  you  would  tell  us,  can  answer 
every  question  which  bears  on  the  moral  nature,  the 
hopes,  the  fears  of  man,  —  can  remedy  every  wrong,  — 
can  heal  every  wound,  —  can  soothe  every  sorrow. 
How  is  it  dealing  with  the  problems  of  human  life? 
To  what  extent  does  it  confront  that  hai'sh  and  grip- 
ing greed  which  accumulates  its  own  pleasures  on  the 
misery  of  thousands,  —  which  divides  society  into  two 
camps,  one  of  which  is  arrayed  against  the  intolerable 
sorrow  of  its  condition;  the  other  is  anxiously  occu- 
pied in  disarming  the  despair  which  it  has  created? 
How  many,  calling  themselves  by  the  name  of  that 
Master  who,  with  such  intense  pungency  of  indigna- 
tion, with  such  bitter  irony,  exposed  and  denounced  the 
hard  hypocrisy  of  His  own  age,  follow  His  example  in 
speaking  after  His  Spirit  to  their  own?  Where  is  the 
champion  of  oppressed,  of  degraded  humanity  ?  Who 
seeks  to  lay  bare  the  ulcers  which  fester  in  what  men 
glibly  call  modern  civilization,  and,  laying  them  bare,  is 
prepared  to  discover  and  ai^ply  their  cure  ?  "  The  har- 
vest is  past,  the  summer  is  ended,  and  we  are  not 
saved."  So  said  the  wise  prophet  of  a  nation  which 
was  then  about  to  enter  into  the  valley  of  the  shadow 
of  death.  Is  Christendom  to  find  no  prophet ;  is  there 
to  be  no  physician  for  the  sorrows  of  the  people  —  no 
one  to  set  forth  Christ  plainly  as  Paul  set  Him  forth  ? 

Thus,  the  chief  difficulties  which  lie  in  the  way  of 
those  who  trust  in  the  force  of  a  revived  and  restored 


898  PAUL    OF  TARSUS. 

Christianity  do  not  arise  in  a  discovery  of  the  means 
•by  which  the  work  should  be  set  about,  but  in  interpret- 
ing and  combating  the  forces  which  will  resist  or  with- 
stand it.  Debarred  by  the  terms  of  its  origin  from  any 
appeal  to  force ;  taught  by  the  experience  of  centuries 
that  its  great  obstacle  has  been  that  alliance  with  secu- 
lar power  which  captivated  and  demoralized  it  in  the 
fourth  century,  the  divine  commonwealth  must  not  be 
led  for  an  instant  to  desire  a  renewal  of  that  ancient 
and  disastrous  association.  The  history  of  Christianity 
has  been  like  that  of  Samson.  It  has  been  seduced 
by  the  charms  of  a  Delilah,  —  has  been  shorn  of  its 
strength  and  beauty,  —  blinded,  and  set  to  work  in  the 
prison-house  of  political  expediency.  But  though  it 
ought  to  have  no  recognized  understanding  with  secu- 
lar govei'nment,  it  can  exhibit  no  antagonism  to  the 
organization  of  civil  authority.  If  it  fulfils  its  mission 
wisely  and  efficiently,  it  will  guide  and  purify  the  pub- 
lic conscience,  and  eventually  supersede  the  functions 
of  secular  authority,  by  reducing  it  to  a  form  and 
a  routine.  Appropriating  all  the  forces  of  social  life, 
and  giving  them  one  direction,  while  recognizing  every 
variety  of  power  and  function,  it  can  in  this  way  only 
effect  the  fulfilment  of  the  Apocalyptic  vision,  —  "  The 
kingdoms  of  the  visible  world  are  become  the  kingdoms 
of  our  Lord,  and  of  His  Christ,  and  He  shall  reign  for 
ever  and  ever;"  or  as  the  prophet  saw  it  in  his  ecstasy, 
—  "  Great  is  His  government,  and  there  is  no  boundary 
to  his  peace." 

Such  a  reconstruction  of  Christianity,  —  such  a  re- 


RECONSTRUCTION  OF  CHRISTIANITY.      399 

newal  of  the  Pauline  church,  may  have  its  origin  in  a 
fusion  of  sects,  or  it  may  commence  in  a  movement 
external  to  them  all.  Men  are  weary  of  words,  and 
turn  away  from  the  arid  strife  of  polemical  disputants. 
Traditions  have  ceased  to  hold  a  mastery  over  them. 
Day  by  day  it  becomes  less  easy  to  renew  the  ancient 
bitterness  of  controversy,  and  to  array  the  facts  of 
the  Gospel  against  its  spirit.  There  is  less  and  less 
prospect  of  eifecting  a  union  of  some  of  those  who 
profess  the  name  of  Christ,  against  others.  There  is 
even  less  power  of  rousing  passion  against  those  who 
stand  aloof  from  acknowledging  the  name  of  Christ  at 
all,  or  from  confessing  llis  office.  But  however  gentle 
our  age  may  be  towards  opinion,  it  is  not  behind  any  in 
its  admiration  for  the  exact  fulfilment  of  duty,  and  in 
the  homage  which  it  pays  to  self-devotion,  kindliness 
and  love.  It  neither  inquires  into  the  creed  of  misery, 
nor  into  that  of  charity.  But  it  is  conspicuous  for  its 
tenderness  towards  the  former,  and  for  the  honor  which 
it  shows  towards  the  latter.  The  world  in  which  we 
live  has,  at  least,  understood  the  maxim  of  Christ,  that 
"  he  who  is  not  against  us  is  on  our  part."  Pity  that 
the  example  is  rare. 

The  greatest  strength,  however,  which  a  IsTew  Ref- 
ormation will  require,  lies  in  the  need  there  is  for  a 
Religion.  What  is  called  civilization  in  our  day,  is, 
in  many  particulars,  a  failure.  It  has  become  a  hot  and 
bitter  struggle  for  life,  in  which  one  may  see,  on  the 
one  hand,  an  ever-increasing  wealth,  surrounded  by 
guarantees    and    securities   of  enjoyment,  —  securities 


400  PAUL   OF  TARSUS. 

whicli  were  accorded  in  no  previous  age  of  the  world's 
history,  —  wealth  which  is  too  often,  and  with  coarse 
ostentation,  paraded  with  cynical  insolence,  worshipped 
with  sordid  adulation.  And  on  the  other  hand,  there 
is  a  vast  and  growing  misery,  for  which  ordinary  pallia- 
tives are  inoperative,  —  for  which  ordinary  explanations 
are  superficial  and  unsatisfictory,  —  for  which  no  reme- 
dies are  found,  because  few  care  to  discover  them, 
fewer  still  dare,  on  discovery,  to  announce  them.  Must 
we  wait  till  men  ask,  and  in  terms  of  increasing  men- 
ace ?  —  What,  then,  if  the  only  fruit  of  those  labors  to 
which  we  have  given  our  lives  is  to  increase  our  own 
misery,  to  tie  us  down  more  firmly  to  inevitable  pri- 
vation, and  to  swell  the  opulence  which  mocks  our 
want?  For  us,  and  we  are  many,  society  needs  recon- 
struction. 

The  attitude  in  which  an  earnest  religion  would 
stand  to  this  morbid  and  dangerous  condition,  would 
not  be  that  of  stupid  acquiescence  in  an  inevitable  des- 
tiny, but  of  an  active  and  general  determination  to  dis- 
cover the  remedy  for  that  which  dishonors  and  degrades 
mankind.  The  patience  and  content  which  are  incul- 
cated by  the  Christian  temper  are  not  indifference  at 
the  result,  but  the  acceptance  of  a  fact,  for  which  there 
must  be,  and  shall  be  a  cure.  Individuals  may,  as 
Paul  says  of  himself,  "  learn  to  be  content,  whatever 
be  the  condition  imposed  on  them."  But  the  corporate 
action  of  Christian  man  is  one  which  is  tlie  very  reverse 
of  this  passive  content.  "  The  struggle,"  says  Paul, 
using  his  favorite  metaphor  of  the  palaestra,   "is  not 


THE   CONTINUAL    CONTEST.  401 

with  flesh  and  blood,  but  with  authorities  and  powers, 
with  the  world's  rulers  of  this  state  of  darkness  which 
prevails  in  our  generation,  Vv'ith  the  spiritual  forces  of 
wickedness  in  heavenly  places."  It  is  as  though  he 
had  said,  We  have  no  quarrel  with  human  government ; 
we  take  up  no  arms  to  fight  against  civil  authority. 
Our  contest  is  with  that  godless  and  blind  selfishness, 
which  arrogates  to  itself  the  right  of  associating  its 
aims  with  the  destinies  of  man,  and  governing  the 
course  of  society,  which  makes  that  light  which  is 
darkness,  that  sweet  which  is  bitter ;  which  affects  to 
consider  the  rule  of  its  own  conduct  as  the  rule  of 
man's  existence;  which  installs  itself  in  the  place  of 
God,  against  which  —  the  deadliest  foe  which  humanity 
encounters  —  it  is  needful  for  Christendom  to  take  the 
panoply  of  God,  and  to  be  steadfast  in  the  work  which 
it  has  to  do. 


Cambridge:  Press  pf  John  ^Fiison  and  Son. 


MESSES.   EGBERTS   BEOTHEES'   PUBLICATIONS. 

THE  INFINITE  AND  THE  FINITE.  By  The- 
OPHILUS  Parsons,  Author  of  "  Deus  Homo,"  &c.  One  neat 
IGmo  volume.     Cloth.    Price  $1.00. 

"  No  one  can  know,"  says  the  author,  "  better  than  I  do,  how  poor  and 
dim  a  presentation  of  a  great  truth  my  words  must  give.  But  I  write  them 
in  the  hope  that  they  may  suggest  to  some  minds  what  may  expand  in 
their  minds  into  a  truth,  and,  germinating  tliere,  grow  and  scatter  seed- 
trutli  widely  abroad.  I  am  sure  only  of  this:  The  latest  revelation  otters 
truths  and  principles  which  promise  to  give  to  man  a  knowledge  of  the 
laws  of  his  being  and  of  his  relation  to  God,  —  of  the  relation  of  the  Inttnite 
to  the  Finite.  ." .  .  And  therefore  I  believe  that  it  will  gradually,  —  it  may 
be  very  slowly,  so  utterly  does  it  oppose  man's  regenerate  nature, —  but  it 
will  surely,  advance  in  its  power  and  in  its  influence,  until,  in  its  own 
time,  it  becomes  what  the  sun  is  in  unclouded  noon." 

From  the  Chicago  Tribune. 
Few  writers  have  obtained  a  more  enviable  reputation  in  this  country 
than  the  author  of  this  little  book,  and  few  are  more  justly  entitled  to 
consideration.  His  works  upon  jurisprudence  are  to  be  found  in  almost 
every  public  and  private  law  library  in  the  cou-ntry ;  while  his  writings 
upon  Christian  philosophy  and  the  science  of  religion  are  universally  re- 
ceived as  models  of  close  and  logical  reasoning  by  those  even  who  ditter  from 
him  in  the  form  of  their  religious  belief.  .  .  ,  Mr.  Parsons  has  been  jji-o- 
iiounced  to  be  ''  the  most  fascinating  interpreter  of  the  writings  of  Swe- 
denborg,"  and  the  present  volume  will  add  to  rather  than  detract  from  a 
reputation  to  which  he  is  so  justly  entitled.  The  defects  of  the  work  are 
only  such  as  necessarily  attach  to  the  subject  itself.  The  linite  cannot 
grasp  the  intinite,  but  the  author  has  accomplished  this:  he  leads  the 
reader  through  new  and  pleasant  paths  of  thought  into  the  boundless 
immensity  that  surrounds  us,  where  the  mind,  freed  frem  the  idea  that  the 
only  source  of  spiritual  truth  is  a  revelation,  the  interpretation  of  which 
is  limited  to  a  prescribed  class,  feels  and  acknowledges  the  power  of  the 
intinite  in  newer,  simpler,  and  not  less  holy  truths. 

From  the  New  York  Evening  Post. 
Professor  Parsons,  in  his  little  work,  does  not  undertake  to  controvert 
the  huge  volumes  that  have  been  written  upon  the  philo.sophical  problem 
of  the  Intinite  and  the  Absolute:  he  merely  attempts  to  show  us  how  the 
I)roblem  has  been  treated  by  his  master,  Swedenborg.  He  has  a  profound 
veneration  for  the  teachings  of  that  illustrious  seer,  and  his  expositions 
of  these  teachings  have  the  merit  of  unusual  clearness  and  simplicity. 
.  .  .  ^Vhatever  difficulties  the  reader  encounters  in  his  pages  are  diffi- 
culties inherent  in  the  subjects  themselves,  and  not  in  his  methods  of  eluci- 
datiin.  Any  one  accustomed  to  think  at  all  upon  deep  religious  questions 
will  be  able  to  understand  what  he  means,  though  he  may  not  be  disposed 
to  accept  his  conclusions.  And  the  inquirer  who  simply  wishes  to  be  in- 
formed of  the  general  scope  and  x'lirport  of  Swedenborg's  remarkable  dis- 
closures will  find  few  better  helps  than  the  small  and  unpretending  volumes 
of  Professor  Parsons. 

• 

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MESSES.   KOBEETS  BEOTHEES'  PUBLICATIONS. 

RADICAL    PROBLEMS.      By  Rev.   C.  A.   Bartol, 
D.D.     One  volume,  16mo.     Cloth.    Price  $2. 

Co>'TENTS.  —  Open  Questions;  Individualism;  Transcendentalism; 
Radicalism;  Theism;  Naturalism;  Materialism;  Spiritualism;  Faith; 
Law;  Origin;  Correlation;  Character;  Genius:  Father  Tayl'^r;  Expe- 
rience; Hope;  Ideality. 

From  the  Liberal  Christian. 

^Hiat  a  wonderful,  wonderful  book  is  the  "  Radical  Problems."  "We  are 
not  a  third  through  it  yet,  and  Heaven  only  knows  where  and  how  we  shall 
find  ourselves  at  the  end  of  the  journey.  Already  are  we  so  shocked, 
stunned,  bewildered,  edified,  delighted, —in  short,  thorougnly,  thcu-oughly 
bewitched,  —  that  we  have  no  words  to  express  ourselves.  .  .  .  That  this 
book  has  a  long  life  before  it  who  can  doubt,  or  that  it  will  cause  a  grand 
commotion  in  the  theological  world?  It  will  be  impetuously  attacked  and 
vehemently  defended,  but  will  survive  alike  the  onslaught  of  its  assailants 
and  the  intemperate  zeal  of  its  defenders ;  and  will  be  the  fruitful  source 
of  many  a  brilliant  essay  and  inspiring  discourse  and  stimulating  and 
suggestive  club-talk,  long,  long  after  its  gentle  and  gifted  author  has  left 
us  to  receive  a  most  cordial  welcome  by  his  brother  thinkers  in  brighter 
spheres. 

From  the  Commonwealth. 

Spirittiality,  purity,  gentleness,  love,  child-like  simplicity,  bless  and 
sanctify  him;  but  he  is  sinrited  as  well  as  si)iritual.  In  his  gentleness 
there  is  a  quick  vivacity,  and  he  sometimes  exhibits  a  keen  incisiveness 
as  of  whetted  steel.  His  aim  is  not  so  much  to  solve  as  to  suggest.  He  is 
no  dogmatist,  nor  is  he  an  expositor  or  judge.  He  finds  oi)en  questions, 
and  delights  to  leave  them  open  questions  still.  Meantime  he  looks  into 
them  with  the  eyes  of  his  inmost  soul,  discerns  much,  throws  out  a  pro- 
fusion of  glancing  and  irradiating  suggestions  that  open  the  questions 
farther  instead  of  closing  them,  then  retires  to  look  elsewhere.  .  .  .  This 
man  carries  eternal  summer  in  the  eyes,  and  sees  beds  of  violets  in  snow- 
banks. His  own  climate  is  his  world,  and  he  can  make  no  excursions  out 
of  it.  A  pleasant  world  it  is,  with  no  deserts,  jungles,  reeking  bogs,  foul, 
ravening  creatures,  and  poles  heaped  with  ice.  As  some  will  see  only  with 
the  physical  eye,  so  he  with  the  spiritual  only. 

From  the  Globe. 
It  contains  seventeen  chapters,  honestly  representing  the  individual 
spiritual  experience  of  the  author,  and  at  the  same  time  indicating  some 
of  the  intellectual  tendencies  of  the  time.  It  is  "  radical,"  not  in  the  usiuil 
sense  of  the  word,  but  in  its  true  sense,  that  of  attempting  to  pierce  to  the 
roots  of  things.  J\Iany  of  the  opinions  and  ideas  exjuessed  in  the  book  may 
be  repudiated  by  the  conservative  reader,  but  its  spirit  and  aim  cannot 
fail  to  chai"m  and  invigorate  him.  Dr.  Bartol,  indeed,  is  one  of  those  men 
who  have  religlDUS  genius  as  well  as  religious  faith.  .  .  .  The  book  is  a 
l>rotest  against  popular  theology,  made  from  what  the  writer  considers 
the  standpoint  of  true  and  i)ure  religion.  We  have  cc^nsidered  it  from  a 
literary  point  of  view,  and,  thus  considered,  its  wealth  of  thousiht  and 
imaginative  illustration  entitle  it  to  a  high  rank  among  the  publications 
of  the  year. 

Sold  everywhere.     Mailed,  postpaid,  hy  the  Publishers, 

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MESSSS.   EGBERTS   BEOTHEES'   PUBLICATIONS. 

AD  CLE  RUM :  Advices  to  a  Young  Preacher.  By 
Joseph  Parker,  D.D.,  Author  of  "Ecce  Deus."  One  vol- 
ume, 16mo.     Uniform  with  "Ecce  Deus."     Price  $1.50. 

From  the  Lutheran  Observer. 
"We  do  not  knowliow  to  begin  or  where  to  end  our  commendation  of  this 
book.  ...  No  one  in  the  ministry,  or  looking  forward  to  the  pulpit,  should 
fail  to  get  it.  He  may  have  Porter,  Vinet,  Kidder,  and  Shedd,  but  he  can- 
not aflbrd  to  do  without  "Ad  Clerum,"  which  is  complemeutal  of  all  tlie 
rest. 

FromEev.  Geo.  W.  Eaton,  D.D.,  President  of  Hamilton  Theological  Seminary. 
I  have  perused  it  fvith  delighted  interest.  Though  not  quite  in  sym- 
pathy with  the  flippancy  and  hyperbolical  statements  which  occur  here 
and  there  in  the  volume,  its  instructions  are  on  the  whole  healthy,  per- 
tinent, and  "  put "  in  a  form  charming  and  impressive.  1  know  of  no  work 
connected  with  homiletical  literature  which  contains  so  much  of  valuable 
aud  timely  instruction  in  a  compass  so  small  and  compact. 

ROMAN  IMPERIALISM,  and  other  Lectures  and 
Essays.  By  J.  R.  Seeley,  M.A.,  Autlior  of  "  Ecce  Homo." 
One  volume,  16mo.  Uniform  with  "  Eoce  Homo."  Price 
$1.50. 

From  the  St.  Louis  Journal  of  Education. 
The  author  of  "  Ecce  Homo  "  has  been  pronounced  the  typical  writer 
of  the  present  time.  Those  who  have  read  his  former  work  —  and  who  has 
not?— will  give  this  a  cordial  welcome.  The  Essays  entitled  "Liberal 
Education  in  Universities,"  "English  in  Schools,"  and  "The  Teachin<' 
of  Politics,"  challenge  the  attention  of  educators;  while  "  The  Church  as  a 
Teacher  of  Morality  "  will  excite  some  of  the  tierce  criticism  that  followed 
the  publication  of  "  Ecce  Homo." 

From  the  Pacific. 
The  Essay  in  this  volume  on  "  English  in  Schools  "  we  hope  will  receive 
attention  from  educators.  It  is  shameful  that  so  little  thorough  knowledge 
is  imparted  in  our  high  schools,  and  eveji  colleges,  of  our  own  tongue.  ]\Jul- 
titudes  of  young  ladies,  accomplished  in  many  other  respects,  ai-e  wofully 
deticient  in  this ;  while  graduates  of  colleges  almost  innumerable  know  more 
of  the  meaning,  derivation,  and  power  of  Greek  and  Latin  words  and 
phrases  than  of  their  own  native  English. 

By  Joel  Benton. 
A  new  book  from  the  pen  of  the  author  of  "  Ecce  Homo  "  is  not  by  any 
means  a  slight  literary  work.    The  memory  of  that  exquisite  picture  set 

in  the  clearest  crystal  of  polished  thought  —  a  perfection  of  art  and  loo'ic 

lingers  as  the  faint,  sweet  aroma  which  recalls  a  wonderful  but  departed 
flower.  In  an  age  that  seeks  to  analyze  and  reconstruct  our  dearest 
traditions,  and  re-base  religion  itself,  it  took,  and  still  holds,  a  prominent 
place. 

Sold  everywhere.     Mailed,  postpaid,  by  the  Publishers, 

ROBERTS  BROTHERS,  Boston. 


MESSES.   EOBEETS   BEOTHEES'   PUBLICATIONS. 

THE  PRIMEVAL  WORLD  OF  HEBREW  TRA- 
DITION. By  Frederic  Henry  Hedge,  D.D.,  Author  of 
"  Reason  in  Keligion."     One  volume,  IGmo.     Price  $1.50. 

From  the  Neio  Yorlc  Tribune. 
Mr.  Hedge  may  be  called  an  eclectic :  not  as  one  who  picks  from  dif- 
ferent systems  the  detached  bits  that  suit  him,  aiul  then  joins  them  skilfully 
together;  but  as  one  who,  committing  himself  unreservedly  to  neither  sys- 
tem, endeavors  by  indeiiendent  and  cultivated  insight  to  get  at  the  deejiest 
truth  contained  in  formulas,  creeds,  and  institutions.  His  f;iith  is  wholly 
in  reason :  he  will  prove  all  things,  and  IkjUI  fast  only  what  is  good ;  but 
his  crucibles  are  various  in  size  and  (juality,  his  tests  are  of  many  kinds, 
and  his  reason  combines  the  action  of  as  many  intellectual  faculties  as  he 
can  bring  into  play  His  faith  is  planted  in  a  tirm  but  gracious  Theism, 
moral  like  that  of  Moses,  and  loving  like  that  of  Christ.  The  belief  in  a 
divine  origin,  education,  guidance,  and  discipline  of  the  world,  runs  through 
his  pages;  and  a  conviction  of  the  moral  capabilities  and  of  the  spiritual 
destination  of  man  shines  in  his  argument  and  ennobles  the  conclusion. 
Those  who  do  not  agree  with  the  book  need  not  be  ottended  by  it;  and  they 
■who  do  agree  with  it  will  be  charmed  by  the  beauty  in  which  what  they 
regard  as  truth  is  converted. 

From  the  London  [Eng.)  Enquirer. 
We  have  been  unable  to  criticise  because  we  lincl  ourselves  throughout 
in  entire  sympathy  and  agreement  with  the  writer.  We  cordially  commend 
Dr.  Hedge's  book  as  the  best  solution  we  have  ever  seen  of  the  difficult 
problems  connected  with  the  primeval  Scripture  record,  and  as  an  admi- 
rable illustration  of  the  spirit  of  reverent  constructive  criticism.  Such  a 
work  as  this  is  aim  ist  like  a  new  revelation  of  the  divine  worth  of  the 
ancient  Hebrew  Traditions,  and  their  permanent  relation  to  the  higher 
thought  and  progress  of  the  world. 

AMERICAN    RELIGION.      By  John  Weiss.      One 

volume,  IGmo.     Cloth.     Price  $1.50. 

From  the  Philadelphia  Press. 

Himself  a  clergyman,  Mr.  Weiss  writes  understandingly  npon  a  very 
solemn  theme.  His  closing  chapter,  entitled  "  The  American  Soldier,"  is 
one  cf  the  noblest  and  truest  tributes  to  the  patriots  of  18G1-G5  ever  put  into 
print. 

From  the  Chicago  Tribune. 

Mr.  Weiss  has  presented  to  the  public  a  scheme  for  an  American  religion 
which,  it  is  almost  needless  to  say,  is  a  religion  of  the  intellect  adapted  to 
the  highest  form  of  American  culture,  and  not  pervaded  to  any  great  degree 
with  spirituality,  as  the  term  is  understood  among  orthodox  believers. 
...  If  Mr.  Weiss  had  christened  his  scheme  "  American  Morality,"  we 
would  gladlj'  have  hailed  his  discovery.  As  it  is,  we  cannot  but  commend 
its  loftiness  of  purpose.  It  is  a  work  full  of  noble  thought,  and,  however 
much  the  reader  may  disagree  with  it  from  a  religious  point  of  view,  there 
are  very  few  who  can  fail  to  be  struck  with  its  purity  of  aim  and  its  healthy 
moral  tone;  while  the  merely  literary  reader  will  derive  equal  gratitication 
from  the  scliolarly  style  and  the  richness  of  illustration  and  research  it  dis- 
plays. The  last  chapter  but  one,  "Constancy  to  an  Ideal,"  is  one  of  the 
tinest  and  noblest  essays  ever  written  by  an  American,  and  deserves  to  be 
read  and  heeded  by  every  American. 

Sold  everywhere.     Mailed,  postpaid,  hj  the  Publishers, 

ROBERTS    BROTHERS,  Boston. 


MESSRS.  ROBERTS  BROTHERS'  PUBLICATIONS. 


The    To-Morrow    of    Death  ; 

OR, 

THE    FUTURE    LIFE    ACCORDING 
TO    SCIENCE. 

By    LOUIS    FIGUIER. 

Translated  from  the  French,  by  S.  R.  Crocker,     i  vol.  i6mo.     J  1.75. 


From  the  Literary  World. 
As  its  striking,  if  somewhat  sensational  title  indicates,  the  book  deals  with  the 
question  of  the  future  life,  and  purports  to  present  "a  complete  theory  of  Nature, 
a  true  philosophy  of  the  Universe."  It  is  based  on  the  ascertained  facts  of  science 
which  the  author  marshals  in  such  a  multitude,  and  with  such  skill,  as  must  com- 
mand the  admiration  of  those  who  dismiss  his  theory  with  a  sneer.  We  doubt  if 
the  marvels  of  astronomy  have  ever  had  so  impressive  a  presentation  in  popular 
form  as  they  have  here.  .  .  . 

The  opening  chapters  of  the  book  treat  of  the  three  elements  which  compose 
man,  —  body,  soul,  and  .ife.  The  first  is  not  destroyed  by  death,  but  simply  changes 
its  form  ;  the  last  is  a  force,  like  light  and  heat,  — a  mere  state  of  bodies  ;  the  soul 
is  indestructible  and  immortal.  After  death,  according  to  M.  Figuier,  the  soul  be- 
comes incarnated  in  a  new  body,  and  makes  part  of  a  new  being  next  superior  to 
man  in  the  scale  of  living  existences, —  the  superhuman.  This  being  lives  in  the 
e'.her  which  surrounds  the  earth  and  the  other  planets,  where,  endowed  with  senses 
and  faculties  like  ours,  infinitely  improved,  and  many  others  that  we  know  nothing 
of,  he  leads  a  life  whose  spiritual  delights  it  is  impossible  for  us  to  imagine.  .  .  . 
Those  who  enjoy  speculations  about  the  future  life  will  find  in  this  book  fresh  and 
pleasant  food  for  their  imaginations ;  and,  to  those  who  delight  in  the  revelations 
of  science  as  to  the  mysteries  that  obscure  the  origin  and  the  destiny  of  man,  these 
pages  offer  a  gallery  of  novel  and  really  marvellous  views.  We  may,  perhaps,  ex- 
press our  opinion  of  "The  To-Morrow  of  Death  "  at  once  comprehensively  and 
concinely,  by  saying  that  to  every  mind  that  welcomes  light  on  these  grave  ques- 
tions, from  whatever  quarter  and  in  whatever  shape  it  may  come,  regardless  of 
precedents  and  authorities,  this  work  will  yield  exquisite  pleasure.  It  will  shock 
some  readers,  and  amaze  many ;  but  it  will  fascinate  and  impress  all. 


Sold  fiveryivkere.     Mailed,  post-paid,  by  the  Publisher!,^ 
ROBERTS    BROTHERS,    Boston 


Messrs.  Roberts  Brothers'  Publications. 


T"HE   GREAT  RELIGIOUS  BOOKS  OF  THE  DAY. 


ECCE    HOMO. 
ECCE     DEUS. 


Although  it  is  now  some  years  since  the  publication  of  "  Ecce  Homo"  and 
"Ecce  Deus,"'  the  sale  of  these  extraordinary  and  remarkable  books  continues 
quite  as  large  as  ever.  Some  of  the  ablest  and  most  cultivated  minds  in  the  world 
have  been  devoted  to  a  critical  analysis  of  them. 

The  foremost  man  in  tngland,  the  Right  Honorable  W.  E.  Gladstone,  has  juat 
published  a  book  devoted  entirely  to  a  review  of  "  Ecce  Homo,"  in  which  he  uses 
the  following  language  :  — 

"  To  me  it  appears  that  each  page  of  the  book  breathes  out.  as  it  proceeds,  what 
we  may  call  an  air,  which  grows  mu.-^icai  by  degrees,  and  which,  becoming  more 
distinct  even  as  it  swells,  takes  form,  as  in  due  time  we  find,  in  the  articulate  con- 
elusion,  '  Surely,  this  is  the  Son  of  God  ;  surely,  this  is  the  King  of  Heaven.' " 

Of  "Ecce  Deus,"  which  may  be  con.-*idered  the  complement  of  "  Ecce  Homo,'' 
there  are  almost  as  many  admires,  the  sale  of  both  books  being  nearly  alike. 

Both  volumes  bound  uniforaily      Sold  separately.     Price  of  each,  Sl.oO. 

Prof.  Ingraham's  "Works. 

THE    PRINCE    OF    THE    HOUSE    OF    DAVID;    or,  Three 

Years  in  the  Holy  City. 

THE   PILLAR   OF   FIRE ;    or,  Israel  in  Bondage. 

THE   THRONE   OP   DAVID;    from  the  Consecration  cf  the  Shepherd 

of  Bethlehem  to  the  Rebellion  of  Prince  Absalom. 

The  extraordinary  interest  evinced  in  these  books,  from  the  date  of  their  pub- 
lication to  the  present  time,  has  in  no  wise  abated.  The  demand  for  them  is  still 
as  large  as  ever. 

In  three  volumes,  12mo,  cloth,  gilt,  with  illustrations.  Sold  separately.  Price 
of  each,  !g2.00. 

The  Heaven  Series. 

HEAVEN    OTJR    HOME.      We  have  no  Savioui  but  Jesus,  and  no  Home 
but  Heaven. 

MEET    FOR    HEAVEN.      A  State  of  Grace  upon  Earth  the  only  Prepsv- 

ration  for  a  State  of  Glory  in  Heaven. 
LIFE    IN    HEAVEN.      There  Faith  ia  changed  into  Sight,  and  Hope  is 

pa.ssed  into  Blissful  Fruition. 
¥•"01)1  Rev.  Samuel  L.  Tuttle,  Assistant  Secretary  of  the  American  Bible  Society 

"  I  wish  that  every  Christian  person  could  have  the  perusal  of  these  writings. 
[  can  never  be  sulliciently  thankful  to  him  who  wrote  them  for  the  service  that  he 
has  reudered  to  me  and  all  others.  They  have  given/orm  and  sub.^tance  to  every 
ihin^  Ttvealfd  in  the  Scriptures  respecting  our  heavenly  home  cf  love^  and  they 
have  done  not  a  little  to  invest  it  with  the  most  powerful  attractions  to  my  heart. 
SiDce  I  hive  enjoyed  the  privilege  of  following  the  thought  of  tliwr  author,  I  have 
felt  that  there  w;ts  a  reality  in  all  thf-se  things  which  I  have  never  felt  before ;  and 
I  find  myself  often  thanking  God  for  putting  it  into  the  heart  of  a  poor  worm  of 
the  dust  to  spread  such  glorious  represen  tuitions  before  our  race,  all  of  whom 
stand  in  need  of  such  a  rest." 

In  three  voluines,  i6mo.     Sold  separately.     Price  of  each,  .'?1  25. 

Mailed,  post-paid,  to  any  address,  on  receipt  of  the  price  h^  the  pubUshec^ 
10 


